Electrical question-lathe lighting

[Isaac Fisher]

I’m adding two Moffatt lamps with LED bulbs onto my PM 3520B lathe and wondering about powering them. I move the lathe at least once a month for club meetings and would like to minimize the number or cords running on the floor.

Option 1 is obvious and simple. Plug them into the 120v receptacles on the wall at my workstation and use an extension cord for the meetings.

Option 2 is to add a junction box with two 240v receptacles on the back of the lathe between the wall plug and the VFD. I could then run the lamps on 240v power, which I believe they’re able to handle.

Option 3 is to add a similarly-placed junction box, but using 120v receptacles. I’ll be upgrading the shop electrical panel next week, and adding a new lathe circuit with 4 conductors isn’t an issue.

Doing the work for any of the options is pretty straightforward and well within my abilities. What I’m uncertain about is possible negative effects on the VFD and the LED bulbs from options 2 or 3.

Any electrical engineers hanging around who could offer some guidance?

Thanks,
Isaac

 

[Dave Landers]

If your lights are ok with 240v, and given that you are moving the lathe around, I'd opt for #2 as it reduces the extension cords and is fairly simple.

If the lamps need 120, then what I've done in the past is add a 20A 240v, split-phase circuit and wire a 240v outlet across black/red, and a couple 120v outlets across the black/white and red/white. I ran my 3520b like that for years with lights, sander, etc plugged into the 120. Problem with this arrangement is that if you move the lathe, the right outlet/circuit is harder to come by.

 

[Kurt Manley]

Not an electrical engineer by any means, not even close but what I would do is put a four gang box with 4 120 outlets on the lathe and just run a separate cord out of it to a 110 outlet but wrap it with the lathe cord so it's essentially one cord. Then I'd wire a 110 and 220 outlet right next to each other when you redo the shop wiring.
If I am reading your post right it seems like you are talking about pulling power from inside the lathe itself for your outlets? I could be wrong...But even if that works for the lights what if you at some point want a sander or grinder, or something with even higher draw? If it was wired separately you'd never have the possibility of overloading anything within the lathe.

 

[Isaac Fisher]

Dave, thanks for the confirmation that the split circuit has worked for you. When I move the lathe it’s always to the same spot, so adding another appropriate circuit there will solve the special plug issue. Both aread are less than 20 feet from the panel, so it won’t be too difficult or expensive.

Kurt, no matter what I end up doing, the lathe and any other loads attached to it will have 30 amps available. If I need to run anything bigger than that I’ve got 120v outlets every four feet on a separate 20 amp circuit.

Right now I’ve got everything plugged in separately, but I’m pathologically tidy, especially about things like cords and hoses.

 

[Wally Crawford]

I ran one of these https://www.harborfreight.com/5-out...tal-housing-and-2-usb-ports-orange-57250.html to my Robust AB and it allows mw to plug in several lights and a sander.