Electrical Systems

[wareagle]

If anyone is having trouble with anything electrical (not electronic), throw it up here. Whether it is trying to figure out the size of a breaker needed for a motor, or "that darn machine won't run", we'll see if we can't get it sorted out here.

 

[Canyonman]

Well All, I'll Bite,

As soon as my lathe is reassembled I would like to take a break from Restoration and build an IC engine.

I picked up 2 "Hot" coils off of EBone but they do not have any sort of trembler device.

So first you what is a trembler and how does it function?

I'm assuming that since mine are just finger joint boxes with two threadedterminals/protrusions that somewhere I'm going to have to time the engine so I think I'll need an old set of breaker points? Yes??

I treated them like a capacitor and charged each of them with a 9V {If I'm gonna get shocked<which I truly hate> I want to use minimum power!} Sure enough when shorted across the terminals I got a 1/4 inch blue/white spark. So I assume, as the man said, they are hot.

Part of me wants to tear one of these open and check it out---the other part of me says "Hey don't go messing it up, it works at the moment."

Ken

 

[wareagle]

Canyonman, can you post a pic of the coil(s)?

 

[cfellows]

Well All, I'll Bite,

As soon as my lathe is reassembled I would like to take a break from Restoration and build an IC engine.

I picked up 2 "Hot" coils off of EBone but they do not have any sort of trembler device.

So first you what is a trembler and how does it function?

I'm assuming that since mine are just finger joint boxes with two threadedterminals/protrusions that somewhere I'm going to have to time the engine so I think I'll need an old set of breaker points? Yes??

I treated them like a capacitor and charged each of them with a 9V {If I'm gonna get shocked<which I truly hate> I want to use minimum power!} Sure enough when shorted across the terminals I got a 1/4 inch blue/white spark. So I assume, as the man said, they are hot.

Part of me wants to tear one of these open and check it out---the other part of me says "Hey don't go messing it up, it works at the moment."

Ken

Ken,

I believe the trembler is the points. Old induction coils, like those used in Model T's, have built in points that rapidly make and break the circuit when power is applied. You can do the same thing with external points.

Chuck

 

[shred]

Here's an electrical thing I ran into with my new 'looks like it could have been wound by Edison himself' 1930's motor (actually a GE model)
-- When the lathe is under heavy load (knurling or something), there's an occasional snapping sound that comes from the motor. I'm guessing that's an electrical arc of some sort and thus bad, but haven't run into that symptom before-- any ideas what the root cause and/or fixes are likely to be?

I could just get a new motor since it's not like 1/3HP AC motors are hard to come by, but I sort of like this one since it's original and looks the part.

Thanks
- Roy

 

[wareagle]

Here's an electrical thing I ran into with my new 'looks like it could have been wound by Edison himself' 1930's motor (actually a GE model)
-- When the lathe is under heavy load (knurling or something), there's an occasional snapping sound that comes from the motor. I'm guessing that's an electrical arc of some sort and thus bad, but haven't run into that symptom before-- any ideas what the root cause and/or fixes are likely to be?

I could just get a new motor since it's not like 1/3HP AC motors are hard to come by, but I sort of like this one since it's original and looks the part.

Thanks
- Roy

Could be a couple of things... It could be arcing like you suspect, but more likely it is probably the centrifical switch mechanism that is used to charge the caps. In my experience, when an anomoly like this begins, it gets worse as time goes on. How long has it been doing this? Any starting problems?

 

[lugnut]

Good write up on Buzz coils (Canyonman) http://www.steamengine.com.au/ic/engines/buzzcoil/index.html
Mel

 

[shred]

Could be a couple of things... It could be arcing like you suspect, but more likely it is probably the centrifical switch mechanism that is used to charge the caps. In my experience, when an anomoly like this begins, it gets worse as time goes on. How long has it been doing this? Any starting problems?

I don't know how long it's been doing that.. I only got the lathe a week ago. It's not super-keen on starting cold, but once the lathe is turning or warm, it's got no problem running, just occasional 'snaps' when loaded heavily. It'll turn an empty chuck and even light cuts all day long with no noise. How would I check the switch mech?

 

[wareagle]

To check the centrifical switch mechanism, you'll have to pull the motor apart. There's no other way to look at it. And, there is no guarantee that this is in fact what your problem is. With the cold starting problems, I am suspecting that you may have a weak or uncharged starting capacitor and this could be a related issue with the centrifical switch if there is a problem with it.

Before ripping into the motor, something else to consider.... You say it is "snapping" only under heavy loads. Is the motor mount rigid? It may be that there is something that is binding up, then releasing periodically (I found a motor one time that had a loose cover making some funny noises, but only periodically). And is the belt(s) properly tensioned? There may be a possibility of the belts slipping ever so slightly that may be causing the noise. All of this to say, if it were me, I would exhaust all other possibilities before going into the motor as that is the most time consuming (or expensive if replacing) thing to do.

I wish I were more help!

 

[1Kenny]

Had that snapping sound on my lathe motor a few weeks ago. One of the things I found was the centrifugal switch was sticking on one side. It had a little Burr on the plate. Used a little file to clean it up and it has been working fine. One of the contacts on the plate had some carbon build up, so I cleaned up everything while I was in there. Its been running well now. Found a loose terminal on the motor box and a couple of wires that had the insulation fraying so I pulled in all new wires. Feel a lot better about it now.

 

[Canyonman]

Thank You Mr Lugnut,

Your reference is a wonderful site. IF it's legal we should put it into a Reference Section. Do we have one of those yet? We could at least list the Link URL.

I have not finished reading yet but I wanted to take a break and say THANK YOU!

Here is the pic Wareagle, I'm not having much luck at re-sizing.

Take Care, Ken

 

[Canyonman]

WOW That One Worked Great! Did one of You Mods do some tweaking? Last night I tried until I got PO'd and quit. Even after resizing on a number of my photo programs it was still huge!

Only thing I noted was that as you cross the image url with the cursor, it says copied, but it does not perform the function. When I went back and did a right click copy and paste and there is the result!

WhooHooo!

Take Care, Ken

BTW, see now that there is no trembler devices, I'll either have to make a trembler or just use points. Points sounds easier at the moment, but it does not look real great on some models.

 

[wareagle]

Canyonman, those are some impressive coils. You have answered your own question in that there isn't a trembler and points would be the easiest way to utilize the coils.