Sorry if it has already been said, a lot of reading. You want to remember that you need to be able to true the muzzle of your barrel when chambering. My 15x50 clausing takes a barrel longer than 32". I ended up buying a heavy south bend 10" 1-1/2 bore if I remember correct.
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Which new lathe?
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ntsqd
Well-Known Member
FWIW I have a rotary phase converter that runs several machines, one at a time. It is a bit noisy, but I see that as a good thing as I don't run it any more than I have to. Keeps the power bill in check. VFD's weren't really an option when I bought it.
Would I buy it again? I don't know. For what it would cost now I could likely put a VFD on each machine, but not all of them need that functionality.
Maybe I'm out of touch, but seeing the Grizzly name mentioned with the likes of Monarch, Clausing, Hardinge, etc. is appalling. For a second Op or home hobby machine, maybe. For a front line, high precision machine doesn't seem like a good choice. For the OP's stated budget I'd not be considering them at all.
Would I buy it again? I don't know. For what it would cost now I could likely put a VFD on each machine, but not all of them need that functionality.
Maybe I'm out of touch, but seeing the Grizzly name mentioned with the likes of Monarch, Clausing, Hardinge, etc. is appalling. For a second Op or home hobby machine, maybe. For a front line, high precision machine doesn't seem like a good choice. For the OP's stated budget I'd not be considering them at all.
Guess I'm in a different camp than a lot on here. Been running machines for over 20yrs. I have to laugh when I see recommendations for a grizzly with the other options the op listed. Grizzlies are a joke compared to his other options.
Just remember to research the power supply problems thru the years.
A new rebuild would be over twice your budget.
shortgrass
Well-Known Member
Most of the Monarchs I see for sale (on e-bay) are much, much to big for chambering. Darned good lathes, no doubt about that. But I'd not want a 16" swing lathe to chamber with. Might be fine if you work "between centers", I don't know. I'd not discount a used Clausing or Southbend, as long as we're thinking 13"swing by about 40" (between centers) bed. But no shorter the 36". Plenty of good lathes out there for your purpose if ya' just look around some. I'd not get hung-up on one particular brand name, you could be missing out on a dandy machine if ya' do. It will all boil down to your skills, not the brand name of the machine.
I have to agree with this. It may take some work but it's worth it. Here is the 12x36 Logan I restored and installed a VFD on.
wwbrown
Well-Known Member
A friend and I put together a shop to do gunsmithing, a lathe, mill, and large compressor. Instead of putting a VFD on each machine I installed a rotary convertor that was assembled by buying a control box and supplying a 3 phase motor. Three phase motors can be had almost for scrap prices, the 3 phase on the convertor is a 10 hp and I got it for $50 after a fresh rewind and bearing job. Frame type does not matter for the phase convertor so just watch craigslist for a while to get the hp motor you need. The control box was about $350, so generating 3 phase cost us less than $500 to get going.
After running the shop on a part time basis for about 5 years we have blown out two capacitors in the control box at about $12 a piece and that is the only problem we have had. To test the robustness of the system we have run the mill, lathe, and compressor (about 14 hp total rating) at the same time and had no problem. Keep in mind most of barreling work is very low loading on the machine light cuts for short tenons, reaming has intermittent loading unless running an oil flush system. One other drawback is a greater initial up front cost in wiring the shop as you have to run an additional line to each machine when going with the rotary convertor, we strung all the conduit and wiring so that was not a bog deal.
Three of us wired the shop got the 3 phase convertor installed in about 4 hours and things worked like they should when we plugged them in the first. All of the "magic smoke" stayed inside all of the components. Prior to wiring the shop I knew nothing about 3 phase I just studied a fair amount on google and was careful.
Noise and extra electric costs are the drawbacks on the rotary system we have other than that all has been good. I built a 2 hp 2 x 72 belt grinder that runs in my garage a VFD. The grinder-VFD combination is great as I get continuous variable speed find the sweet spot read of the frequency on the VFD and you can come right back to it. I bought a VFD off of ebay for about $60 and that has worked great, I got the 2 hp three phase off of craigslist for $50 so I have more power than I need at the exact speed I need for $110 a very hard price to beat.
There are pluses and minuses to each way if I only had one or two machines I would probably go with a VFD at each machine and feed 2 phase 220 to the machines.
After running the shop on a part time basis for about 5 years we have blown out two capacitors in the control box at about $12 a piece and that is the only problem we have had. To test the robustness of the system we have run the mill, lathe, and compressor (about 14 hp total rating) at the same time and had no problem. Keep in mind most of barreling work is very low loading on the machine light cuts for short tenons, reaming has intermittent loading unless running an oil flush system. One other drawback is a greater initial up front cost in wiring the shop as you have to run an additional line to each machine when going with the rotary convertor, we strung all the conduit and wiring so that was not a bog deal.
Three of us wired the shop got the 3 phase convertor installed in about 4 hours and things worked like they should when we plugged them in the first. All of the "magic smoke" stayed inside all of the components. Prior to wiring the shop I knew nothing about 3 phase I just studied a fair amount on google and was careful.
Noise and extra electric costs are the drawbacks on the rotary system we have other than that all has been good. I built a 2 hp 2 x 72 belt grinder that runs in my garage a VFD. The grinder-VFD combination is great as I get continuous variable speed find the sweet spot read of the frequency on the VFD and you can come right back to it. I bought a VFD off of ebay for about $60 and that has worked great, I got the 2 hp three phase off of craigslist for $50 so I have more power than I need at the exact speed I need for $110 a very hard price to beat.
There are pluses and minuses to each way if I only had one or two machines I would probably go with a VFD at each machine and feed 2 phase 220 to the machines.
I finally got around to making a drawing of my rewired PM 1340GT for a VFD but apparently don't know the secret to uploading pictures. I attempt to drag the photo from Photos and initially there's a + sign on the photo but then it disappears and nothing happens. It was 1.4M. Is that too much?
I already had variable speed on my mill so I just got an RPC for that. The lathe had 12 speeds (with a belt change) so that's why I decided on a VFD. I set the low speed to 30Hz and the max to 80Hz so I go from 50% to 133% for each lever setting.
PM1340GT rewire for VFD.
First pic is the rewiring. Kept the 24v transformer, added a small DPDT relay and 2 terminal blocks. Not exactly dressed like a professional job. I was in a hurry to get it done.
Second is the original schematic.
Third represents what's in the first picture.
First pic is the rewiring. Kept the 24v transformer, added a small DPDT relay and 2 terminal blocks. Not exactly dressed like a professional job. I was in a hurry to get it done.
Second is the original schematic.
Third represents what's in the first picture.
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6.5x284tony
Well-Known Member
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Precision Matthews 14x40GT in 3-phase and wired it up to a rotary phase convertor. LOTS of info on YT regarding this lathe.
