delta 46-715

[Diane Vinyard]

I mistakenly moved the speed lever to high without the motor running.:mad: I've managed to get the drive back down to low by manually moving the belt., But the motor still will not run. Anybody have experience with this lathe? I would appreciate any suggestions on what to do next. Thanks

 

[john lucas]

I had the 46-700 which is similar but certainlly not the same. Could there be a limit switch or something that the lever or pulley hits? Purely a guess. Can you rotate the spindle or pulley by hand. Possibly the motor has a dead spot and rotating it by hand might get it start.

 

[rjones]

check your belt to make sure is is not too tight by moving everything by hand you might have got the pulleys out of alignment and have the belt to tight and have the motor in a bind.
check to see if it tripped the breaker


Take the belt off of the motor see if the motor will run
good luck

 

[Bill Boehme]

I've had this model lathe for about seven years and can't imagine how the lever could be moved while the lathe is not running without damaging something -- most likely the hub of the movable half of the spindle pulley. If you remove the pulley and yoke assembly from the spindle, you may find that the hub has fractured right where it fits into the bearing on the yoke. It is impossible to overtighten the belt unless something else is broken.

By the way, any damage caused to the Reeves drive would not directly affect the motor unless you tried to run it in a "locked-rotor" condition (that is, the drive train is locked up because of something broken). When you say that the motor does not run, I am assuming that you mean it does not run even if the drive belt has been removed. Does it hum or is it completely silent? If it hums, but does not turn, it meas that either the start capacitor has failed, the start winding has failed, or the centrifugal switch has failed. If it does not even hum, first make sure that the breaker has not tripped because that is likely to happen in a locked-rotor condition. There is also a thermal overload, but it should reset itself once the motor has cooled.

 

[Diane Vinyard]

Thank you everyone for these suggestions. I will pass it on to my husband and hope he understands the system better now.

 

[Bill Boehme]

BTW, it is actually possible to move the speed control lever from low to high without breaking something although it would still be more difficult to move the lever than when the motor is running. However, going the other way from high to low would be nearly impossible without something breaking. The reason for the difference is that in the first case, belt tension is being relieved on the spindle pulley while the spring on the motor pulley is trying to take up the slack by pushing the two halves of the motor pulley together. The spring force is unlikely to be able to get the pulley to move very much because the belt is wedged between the halves and resisting being forced outwards. In the second case, the movement is the opposite and the speed control lever is trying to force the halves of the spindle pulley togetherwhile the belt is wedged down deeply between them.

 

[Dave Roller]

I have a heavy duty Delta /Rockwell lathe that has a reversing drum switch located in a spot where I will on occasion kick it into a "neutral" position. The motor will not run at that setting. Check to see if you have a reversing drum switch and make sure it's turned to the proper position.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I have a heavy duty Delta /Rockwell lathe that has a reversing drum switch located in a spot where I will on occasion kick it into a "neutral" position. The motor will not run at that setting. Check to see if you have a reversing drum switch and make sure it's turned to the proper position.

Dave, I don't know what a "drum" switch is unless it is the type with a lever arm that rotates, but the 46-715 doesn't have one in any case. This model lathe does not have a reverse feature unless an owner modifies the motor to add that capability. I have modified my lathe motor so that it can run in reverse and use a DPDT bat handled toggle. I had a heck of a time locating a switch that did not have a center NC position, but finally did. A center position serves no useful purpose for this application and as you mentioned it can cause a problem because the motor will not run if the power switch is turned on while the FWD/REV switch is in the center position and additionally the motor will be drawing heavy current in that situation.

 

[Dave Roller]

Bill, the reversing switch I mentioned is on a 46-400 Rockwell/Delta Heavy Duty Lathe. The switch is made by Dayton. I cannot find the old Rockwell catalog, which I know I have somewhere around here, but I do know that the switch was installed in a pre-determined spot that was formed in the base of the lathe stand. The catalog referres to it as a "drum switch." It does have a handle that rotates 180 degrees.

I use this lathe infrequently now, mostly for polishing and most recently for spindles longer than my PM 4224 will accomodate. The Delta has a filler block for the lathe bed. This filler block can be located beyond the lathe ways and the tailstock can be put on this block. It takes a LOT of finaggling to get it set up accurately, but it does work very well.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Bill, the reversing switch I mentioned is on a 46-400 Rockwell/Delta Heavy Duty Lathe. The switch is made by Dayton. I cannot find the old Rockwell catalog, which I know I have somewhere around here, but I do know that the switch was installed in a pre-determined spot that was formed in the base of the lathe stand. The catalog referres to it as a "drum switch." It does have a handle that rotates 180 degrees.

I use this lathe infrequently now, mostly for polishing and most recently for spindles longer than my PM 4224 will accomodate. The Delta has a filler block for the lathe bed. This filler block can be located beyond the lathe ways and the tailstock can be put on this block. It takes a LOT of finaggling to get it set up accurately, but it does work very well.

Dayton is the house brand for Grainger. I looked at an illustrated parts breakdown for the lathe and did not see a reversing switch so I presume that it must have been added by a previous owner.

 

[Diane Vinyard]

Thank you all for the suggestions. Turns out my problem had nothing to do with the speed lever. I need a new switch. so for the time being, I have to plug in the lathe to start or stop it. . . but I'm glad it works. My new shop is up and running I'll have more pictures soon.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I also had to replace the switch. I disassembled mine and did a post mortem. It turned out that the switch is really flimsy and not really suitable for switching a motor.

 

[Dean Center]

The latest Grizzly catalog had 2 pages of switches in it and one of them would probably work for your lathe. Bill would be better equipped to say whether they're decent quality or not, but the price is quite a bit better than Delta or other woodworking suppliers.

 

[Bill Boehme]

For the best service life, a switch should be rated for an inductive load (an inductive load is anything that involves an electromagnet -- motor, solenoid, contactor, and relay are examples). If a switch is rated for switching a motor, it will have a horsepower rating marked on the switch in addition to the usual amperage rating. The ratings of a lot of imported switches are suspect in my opinion so if buying one of those switches, I would lean towards getting one that is rated higher than necessary.

One typical failure mode of a switch with a motor load is that the contacts weld themselves together when turning the power to the motor OFF. That is the type of failure that the switch had on my lathe. It took me a couple seconds to gather my wits and unplug the late when it continued to run after flipping the switch to the OFF position.

The following images show the contact damage to the switch. There are no markings to indicate that it is rated for a motor load.