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My lathe is broke down.

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I was turning, tonight, on my Delta 46-250. They call it a MIDI, but it's really a mini. I stopped to clean up a little bit, and my tailstock fell off the table, and turned off the power strip the lathe was plugged into. Now, there are 2 outlets on this former porch. Both are GFCI, and if either trips, neither works. I found the problem, reset it, and my little lathe is the only thing that won't power on. Did it kill the switch? I'm not sure what to try now.
 
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If you have an ohm meter you can take a measurement across the end of the power cord plug after you remove it from the outlet.
With the lathe switch in the on position you should read resistance of the motor winding.
If you do not get an ohm reading it is likely the switch contacts went bad.
You can make an ohm reading across the switch terminals to confirm the contact values.
A bad switch will indicate no resistance / no reading on the meter.
If you get a value across the switch contacts, and no value on the motor winding, then your motor might be bad.
 

Bill Boehme

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It sounds like when the tailstock fell off the lathe that it probably caught on the power cord on its way down and either damaged it at the plug end or at the end where it connects to the power switch. I'm betting that it was damaged at the power switch end. There's probably either a strain relief or cable clamp at that end and then either lugs or wire nuts depending on the switch configuration. A connector probably got jerked loose. The worst case is that the switch may have been damaged, but I suspect that a more likely scenario is that something got pulled loose. If you could get some close up pictures from the underside where the power cord goes to the switch that would help.
 

Bill Boehme

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If the lathe was turned off at the time then you can rule out any electrical power induced failure. Plug the lathe in somewhere else that is not a GFCI circuit and also do not use that power strip because there might be a ground fault in the strip as a result of the tailstock hitting it.

You said that the breaker tripped as a result of the tailstock hitting the power strip. When you said that you found the problem and fixed. What was the problem and what did you do to fix it.

I believe that the problem is a ground fault somewhere. The lathe power cord has a three prong plug while most small tools and portable lighting don't and that might partly explain why the lathe is the only thing that causes the breaker to trip.

While troubleshooting, check to see if the lathe spindle turns freely. Disconnect the drive belt so that the motor can turn freely and then plug it into a non-GFCI circuit

It would be nice to have a cheap multimeter to make continuity checks and voltage measurements.
 
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Bill, thank you for the advice. I can't say 100%, but I believe the lathe was on when it happened. Everything else I have plugged into that power strip has worked. My grinder, bandsaw, and light have all worked when I test them in the strip. Of course, it doesn't make sense to me that just hitting the power button on the strip would trip the GFCI outlet. As far as I know, that was all that happened. The little handle to spin the handwheel on the tailstock fell on the power button of the power strip. The problem I fixed was to reset the GFCI outlet on the other side of the room. I don't have any test devices. I usually don't mess with electrical issues. When I turn on the power, to the lathe, it doesn't even try to come on, but the motor does spin freely.
 
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kind of hard to imagine the survival of a power strip after a cast iron lathe tail stock fall from about 30" onto it. I'm betting it's the power strip.
 
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I would pick up that lathe and plug it in a outlet directly, just to make sure the extension cable is not the problem, then he next test would be the switch on the lathe if the first try at another outlet did not work.

You can measure if power is coming to the switch and going out to the motor, and bypass the switch to make sure it goes there, after that measure if power comes in at the motor, just eliminate one thing at the time, good luck.
 

Bill Boehme

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If the breaker tripped when the tailstock fell off the table, but doesn't trip now when the lathe switch is turned on then a possibility is that there was a momentary arc over either in the strip outlets or the lathe power cord. If I understand the situation now is that the lathe doesn't power on regardless of where it is plugged in and it doesn't trip the breaker. This indicates an open circuit in either the lathe power cord or switch.

Raul makes a very good point about the impact of the tailstock on the power strip. It would be like hitting it with a very large hammer. I would be very surprised if it wasn't damaged. Have you checked all of the outlets on the strip by swapping plugs around?

I had a similar experience where the tailstock of my Jet mini fell off the table and landed nose-first on the Oneway live center. The cost of repairing it was almost as much as a new one so I wound up getting a new one.
 
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Everything works on the strip. Lathe is the only problem. I'm going to borrow a meter to check the switch, and the plug.
 
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I'm back in business. The 85 year old busy man I borrowed the meter from, came with it. It was the cord. Apparently, the edge of the tailstock landed on it, and broke 1 wire. Thanks for all the counsel.
 

Bill Boehme

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I'm back in business. The 85 year old busy man I borrowed the meter from, came with it. It was the cord. Apparently, the edge of the tailstock landed on it, and broke 1 wire. Thanks for all the counsel.

Great news. A falling tailstock shouldn't be taken "lightly". :D (sorry, but I couldn't restrain myself)
 
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