Powering up my old Hendey lathe

[historicalarms]

So, I aint no A.C. lectrical engineer, like all truck drivers ever born i can re-wire any 12 V system to perform better'n any engineer ever thought of but AC aint my cup-o-tea.
I expected there to be 4 wires inside the hard cover but there are only 3. two white and a black.
I will be installing a 20 amp plug to the end of the wires that corresponds to the wall outlet, sideways blade and an upright blade with a ground prong. i thought i could just remove the wall outlet cover & match the hookup inside but the wall receptacle has a red wire & a black connected to the blades & another wire to the ground prong ( think its green).

Do I hook both white wires to the blade that will connect to the red wire and black to black on the other blade and leave the ground prongs vacant?

 

[Rauce]

What’s the info on the name plate of the motor?

Any pictures?

 

[Susquatch]

So, I aint no A.C. lectrical engineer, like all truck drivers ever born i can re-wire any 12 V system to perform better'n any engineer ever thought of but AC aint my cup-o-tea.

We will just leave that alone...... But it is downright funny!

I expected there to be 4 wires inside the hard cover but there are only 3. two white and a black.

There are lots of possibilities here. We will need more info than that. You could start by defining the motor for us. Is it 240 or 120? 1 phase or 3 phase. And are you sure of that? As @Rauce suggested, a photo of the motor plate would help if there is one. A photo of the inside of the junction box where outside power comes to the lathe would also help. Or even a photo of the plug - if it has one.

I will be installing a 20 amp plug to the end of the wires that corresponds to the wall outlet, sideways blade and an upright blade with a ground prong. i thought i could just remove the wall outlet cover & match the hookup inside but the wall receptacle has a red wire & a black connected to the blades & another wire to the ground prong ( think its green).

Do I hook both white wires to the blade that will connect to the red wire and black to black on the other blade and leave the ground prongs vacant?

Although it might work to do things like you suggest, I don't recommend it. Any hook up begins with understanding what you need and then figuring out how to give it that. You cannot count on what is there to be right. It's an old machine that has likely been wired by more than one "expert" wire puller.......

 

[Rauce]

I looked at your other thread and if it is 220v 1ph like you said then 3 wires would be expected (two hots to make the 220v and a ground). If your outlet is 4 wire 220v 1ph then the extra wire is for a machine or appliance that uses both 220v and 120v. The extra wire would be a neutral return (white usually) and the red or black with the white gives you 120v. Check the motor plate to be sure your motor is 220v 1ph.

You might need to trace the wires up to the motor and see where it’s connected. Sounds like someone used whatever wire they had disregarding the colour. The ground will just be attached to the motor housing inside the box on the motor. The other two will be hooked up to leads.

 

[Susquatch]

I looked at your other thread and if it is 220v 1ph like you said then 3 wires would be expected (two hots to make the 220v and a ground). If your outlet is 4 wire 220v 1ph then the extra wire is for a machine or appliance that uses both 220v and 120v. The extra wire would be a neutral return (white usually) and the red or black with the white gives you 120v. Check the motor plate to be sure your motor is 220v 1ph.

You might need to trace the wires up to the motor and see where it’s connected. Sounds like someone used whatever wire they had disregarding the colour. The ground will just be attached to the motor housing inside the box on the motor. The other two will be hooked up to leads.

While what you say makes total sense. I'd still like to see photos where we can explain what's there with more certainty. Even if he does like to take shots at Auto Engineers, I'd hate to see @historicalarms get hurt.

Also, it's quite common to wire 240 without the neutral. And it's also somewhat common to use one side of the 240 with the neutral to get an extra 120 service directly from a 240 supply - thus not needing the 4th wire. Lastly, with old equipment like that, black could be ground and the whites the two sides of the 240.

Anyway, better safe than sorry.

@historicalarms - silly question. Do you have a multimeter with AC Volts on it?

 

[historicalarms]

Yes i do have a multi meter, I havent used it for an age but I think it has high voltage setting.

The previous owner had it running for 20 yrs with just those 3 wires & he did say it was 220 single phase. I will try to locate a plate on the motor, never noticed one when working around the motor/top drive tho. not sure but the paint on the motor would indicate that it may be the original motor from the overhead belt conversion to electric, could be most of a century ago.

I will snap a few photos for you Susquatch tomorrow