joelav Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 My wife and I decided to start down the addictive path of wood turning. In two weeks we have turned over 50 pens, a bunch of keychains, and played with a lot of scraps. It's a ton of fun and I can't wait to get deeper into it! My question is about my lathe. I bought the Harbor Freight 65345 woodworking lathe. It's not the super cheap one, it's about 200$ before discounts/coupons and extremely similar to everything you can find for under 400$ (the PSI lathe and other "starter" or "pen" lathes) with a 10" swing, 18" bed capacity, live center, 1/2 HP. Yes I know HF stuff is not the best, but this lathe is actually really nice, especially for the price. I do plan on upgrading to a larger lathe in the not to distant future since I am pretty hooked on turning and will likely go with a Nova or Powermatic (I'm not afraid to spend money on tools I use a lot). I do however plan on keeping this lathe for smaller stuff like pens as my wife and I currently battle for lathe time. After my rambling on, here is the question - The motor gets REALLY hot. Is that normal? Is there anything I can do to cut down the heat? There is a fan in the motor, it is not obstructed, and pushes a good amount of air. My belt is tentioned properly per the manual, about 1/2" deflection. Is there anything I should be aware of that is causing excessive heat, like the tailstock being too tight to the piece, lubrication I am not doing, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jHop Posted August 18, 2012 Report Share Posted August 18, 2012 Gotta warn you, I'm not much of an electrician, nor an electrical engineer. My understanding would be that an insufficient amount of air is travelling past / through the motor. Given that the lathe is subject to lots of dust, I'd try blowing it out with compressed air first. I might suspect the case for the motor does not have an adequate ventilation size or quantity. I also suspect the quality of the motor itself might be to blame. I doubt (although I'm not that experienced a turner to verify this) that the belt tension is to blame. As for the tailstock, in my experience, the motor will not turn it if it is too tight, and the workpiece will just catch if the piece is not tight enough. After blowing out the motor, try adding a second fan to angle some air up towards it. I know my own benchtop lathe motor gets hot periodically, but I also rarely turn past an hour. (since it's a smaller lathe, I can only do so much before I run out of stock. It fits my shop size, so I'm not complaining.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
croessler Posted August 18, 2012 Report Share Posted August 18, 2012 Check to see if it is a TEFC (Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled) motor and make sure it's fan is actually running..... Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted August 18, 2012 Report Share Posted August 18, 2012 ys not one but two people are added to the list of turning addicts........the meeting is every other tuesday. first off harbor freights is a cheap company they use cheap material, and cheap parts and from what i understand the motors tend to burn out. ad a half H/P motor is just going to make you want more. i wish you had asked on here before buying because i could have pointed you in several directions for a better machine. ill give you the same advice i was given buy the better machine because it holds its value over time. i can resell my delta - for the same cost i paid for it or almost the same. but i would not want to buy a use harbor freight machine. (ps dont turn way unbalanced pieces harbors lathes have a nack for breaking bearings and what not if the weight is too great so if you make bowls, vases ect.... make shure it starts out round) as for the motor itself sorry cant help much but i can tell you my abservences. my lathe after turning all day 9am-5pmmy motor only got warm. but that can depend on the object thats geting turned. when i turned a small log into a large bowl my motor got prity warm after 5 hours and when i turned a stack of wistles all day at high speeds it got prity warm. so a large uneven blank or high speeds can put extra stress on the motor and make it warm. if it gets too warm just like you it shuts itself down to cool off. you should be ok but you might want to make shure there is good air flow around the motor and clean up any piled wood chips off the motor so that it can cool off. perhaps someone with better understanding of motors can help. lastly if you need any help or ideas on turning and want to bounce them off of someone feel free to let me know. and ill try to help or at least listen with a blank stare and say yep,uh huh, go on. serously i havent been doing this as long as some but i do this all day most days for the last year because of my job and now im starting to get a decent grasp on wood turning. so if you have a question then shoot me a email. oh and you should think about just making your own tools i can help with a decorating tools, less then 5 bucks a E-z type tool that i built for 10 bucks, some lathe tools that i built for less then most sets cost. i added to this post with lots of links take a look at the around the wood site and wood turning online they are very usefull for projects, tools, jigs ect... here is just a fun screwdriver that i made for a doller have fun making chips ......................shaving will come with experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joelav Posted August 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 This is a TEFC motor. The fan does move a decent amount of air. I really think the belt is too tight. I'm about to go turn a few pens and I will loosen it up a bit. Duckkisser, Thanks for the tips! Those links are great. I know HF makes cheap crap, but i wanted a cheap crappy lathe to see if I liked turning. As I mentioned this is the same "starter lathe" everyone else sells for about 80$ more. Someday soon I will get a larger more powerful lathe. I really like the Nova DVR, I turned on one this weekend at my local woodcraft. Also funny you should mention shavings, I actually was able to get some yesterday on a piece of maple I was turning. I didn't even know you could get shavings. After playing around with the angle of the gouge for a bit, it was able to do it consistently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 haha wait till you turn green wood it will be one solid stream of ribbons. with a roughing gouge when you get the right angle it will cut smoother instead of scraping and it will take out alot of vibration so you can turn long or thinner pieces. you might want to think about also practicing with a skew if you cut instead of scrape you get a surface that is almost like it has been sandinged all the way up to the 220s its saves alot of sanding steps. what is your set up for sharpening your tools? because you spend as alot of time touching up your blades. if you are going to update you might want to think of buying the delta 46-460 its a good midi lethe that lets you turn up to 12 inches on the depth and i think 15-20 inches long. and if you get the extension it turns like 37 inches long. unless you specialize in large turnings like makeing large hats/ vases ect then 99 percent of the time you wont need larger then 12 inches. the only reason i got the extension was because i want to make a walking sticks and canes. this is a fun little project that i turned a bunch of and make with the kids in my classroom when we have a half day to kill http://www.henrytaylortools.co.uk/decorating_elf.html (i can show you how to make a tool like this but for 10 bucks) here is a little tip that i picked up this guy shows burnign with a wire thats great till you want to burn on a face well use a sample card of formica counter top and just press to the wood. will go on wood in any direction or edge as long as you have the card pressed firmly. you can get a card from any tool supply store like menards or counter top manufacurer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joelav Posted August 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 Bum lathe. I brought it back to HF last night since it was only 3 weeks old. I ran the new one for a solid hour and a half and it was barely warm. At an hour and a half on the other lathe, you'd leave skin on the motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 maybe you should have kept it and cooked eggs on it. turn a little and then eat a egg turn some more eat an egg turn a little and eat an egg turn a little.... turn a little..... turn a little..... turn a little and then go crazy and think your a egg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joelav Posted August 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 I have practiced with a skew, I am getting better but that is a tough one to master. I touch up my gouges often, I have a grinder and I made a wolverine style jig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 ya the trick that i find with my skew is finding the right angle and light passes. if you try and go deep you will bog down and have the wood chip on you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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