My lathe won’t start – motor dead?

[Richard Harris 5Participant @richardharris5]

So I have a Axminster C1 micro lathe from 2010. It had infrequent use from 2010 until 2013/14, and hasn't been used much for the past couple of years. It's still useful, so we keep it. It's obviously pretty cheap and not very well made, but it did the job fine for what it was.

I came to make something this evening – a coffee tamper for my espresso machine – and it seems to have broken. Which is pretty annoying as I had only just started, and it's probably the only time I had used it to make something for myself!

It "jammed" as I was cutting too aggressively. The fault light came up. I reset it, went to start again, but it didn't turn. The power light came up as usual, but it's not turning at all. The belt is intact and seated fine. My only other observation is that the motor does not make a light "buzzing" sound when turned on, as it did before. It seems pretty lifeless…

Any ideas what could be the fault here? Is it simply the motor that is "dead" and needs replacing?

It lives at my parents place these days, due to space, so unfortunately I won't be able to look at it for another couple of weeks at least, or over xmas.

Your thoughts are most welcome!

[Richard Harris 5Participant @richardharris5]

[charadamParticipant @charadam]

Que?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Might be an internal fuse?

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Before doing anything disconnect from the mains!

Disconect to the two motor wires. Take a household lamp ( bedside lamp?) and connect in place of the motor.

Winding the speed pot up,and down does the bulb brightness vary? If it does then likely motor is at fault- look at the brushes…if the bulb doesnt light, then suspect the control board. You can connect the motor to a car batter, does it run slowly and evenly with no sparking at the commutator?

Edited By John Rudd on 04/12/2016 07:35:22

Edited By John Rudd on 04/12/2016 07:35:41

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Seems like a good time to bring up Uncle Ketan's tips on care of machines at this time of year and how to treat them if not regularly used, see this thread

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

I should have pointed out that the bulb must not be of the energy saving cfl type. It needs to be a standard incandescent light bulb with a filament rated at about 60watts

Edited By John Rudd on 04/12/2016 08:10:56

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

The lathe can never die, only the will to repair it may die!

Michael W

[Richard Harris 5Participant @richardharris5]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 04/12/2016 01:05:47:

Might be an internal fuse?

Thanks Neil. I did try looking at this, but it appears to be "okay".

[Richard Harris 5Participant @richardharris5]

Posted by John Rudd on 04/12/2016 07:34:31:

Before doing anything disconnect from the mains!

Disconect to the two motor wires. Take a household lamp ( bedside lamp?) and connect in place of the motor.

Winding the speed pot up,and down does the bulb brightness vary? If it does then likely motor is at fault- look at the brushes…if the bulb doesnt light, then suspect the control board. You can connect the motor to a car batter, does it run slowly and evenly with no sparking at the commutator?

Edited By John Rudd on 04/12/2016 07:35:22

Edited By John Rudd on 04/12/2016 07:35:41

Thanks John, really useful way of testing if it's the motor or the control board – I'll remember this for the future.. I actually have a spare (brand new, unused) circuit board from when I first bought it. I was getting some erratic speed changes (when not touching the machine at all, like it was possessed), and they sent me a new board. But then the problem went away, and never came back, so I have a spare board lying around.

[Richard Harris 5Participant @richardharris5]

Posted by JasonB on 04/12/2016 07:35:34:

Seems like a good time to bring up Uncle Ketan's tips on care of machines at this time of year and how to treat them if not regularly used, see this thread

Very useful, I'll give it a look over. I#ve never actually used a surge protector with it and I really should… It was always well maintained overall and kept in good shape, but it's been neglected the last couple of years, and could do with a few hours spent cleaning it back up. There are also a couple of things which I need to fix and replace – such as the tailstock feed, which just unscrews when I try to use it for boring, not terribly useful!!

[Richard Harris 5Participant @richardharris5]

Posted by John Rudd on 04/12/2016 08:10:30:

I should have pointed out that the bulb must not be of the energy saving cfl type. It needs to be a standard incandescent light bulb with a filament rated at about 60watts

Edited By John Rudd on 04/12/2016 08:10:56

Noted, thank you!

[Richard Harris 5Participant @richardharris5]

Posted by Michael Walters on 04/12/2016 09:48:47:

The lathe can never die, only the will to repair it may die!

Michael W

Very true! I went to bed in a bit of a mood "Bloody lathe!" and then half an hour later got dressed and went to attack it again. Took it all apart and kept testing different things and for an unknown reason, it sprung back into life. Working fine again. Of course, I had it in a million pieces by then, so just reassembled and didn't have time to do the work I wanted to.

My only observations were that a small green light on the actual control board wasn't lighting up at all before, and then was lighting up fine once the motor started working. The board seemed in perfect condition, nothing had "blew" to my eyes. The motor also seemed fine… I've only ever really turned aluminium alloys so nothing seemed to have been drawn in magnetically.

At least I have a way of testing it myself now, so thank you for this. Axminster also said it would be £30 to collect and quote for it, which isn't too bad. But now I know how I could test the different parts for failure, that's probably be the route I'll take in the future.

Thanks!

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Richard,

The boards can be repaired…..

Usually for less than a collection fee and cost of preparing a quote….

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