New group: Vicmarc

[Sergio Villa]

Hello everybody, i just started a new group: Vicmarc, for people interested in this lathe. I have a VL 300 and I would like other people to share experiences, possible improvements for this beautiful lathe and its accessories. I hope few courageous people will join this group. Thanks.

 

[Bill Boehme]

You forgot to say where -- Yahoo or someplace else?

 

[Sergio Villa]

Yes, you are right. I started the group here in the forum, look under "community" I hope is still there, not to good with computer and many other things....

 

[Freddie]

Vicmarc

I too am the proud owner of a VL-300 long bed, when I figure it out I'll join

 

[Sergio Villa]

I too am the proud owner of a VL-300 long bed, when I figure it out I'll join

It should be easy. Just go on "community" chose groups and join.
Actually, if would like to know if it works and appreciate your feedback and input.
Thanks

 

[Freddie]

Nice and easy, I had to go to the "Full Site" couldn't
Do it from the Mobile site.

 

[Freddie]

Shelf

Shelf and light system on my Vicmarc

 

[Sergio Villa]

Hello Freddie, I posted something on the Vicmarc group.

 

[Cliff Walsh]

Vicmark

Hello Freddie, I posted something on the Vicmarc group.

I too have a Vicmark lathe which I find very good to use. However, it is a Vicmark 100, so call me Junior.

 

[dbonertz]

I just joined. Please check to see that my first post appears OK.

Thanks for doing this Sergio.

Dale

 

[Mike Sooley]

Hi folks! I will be picking up a Vicmarc VL300 Short Bed 2004 vintage with many upgrades. I have many questions about it since I have not actually touched the machine yet. Is this group still active? I could use your collective knowledge. Thanks, Mike

 

[Dean Center]

Yes, you are right. I started the group here in the forum, look under "community" I hope is still there, not to good with computer and many other things....

I don't have anything Vicmarc, but I was curious about this "community" feature and looked for it. Nowhere to be seen on my version of the AAW forum. I bet I'm not the only one scratching my head. Can you explain in greater detail how people might find it?

 

[Karl Loeblein]

Hi folks! I will be picking up a Vicmarc VL300 Short Bed 2004 vintage with many upgrades. I have many questions about it since I have not actually touched the machine yet. Is this group still active? I could use your collective knowledge. Thanks, Mike

I think the community was an old feature not carried over in the current XenForo setup. Just ask questions in this discussion forum, and those of us with Vicmarc lathes try to answer any questions.

Differences in older Vicmarc lathes often come down to the base, motor and VFD drive chosen after importing the upper cast iron section from Australia. Crafts Supply imported many of the Vicmarc lathes and added their own lower section below the lathe bed and painted it to match.

 

[Ed Jarvis]

I have a Vicmarc VL200 I really enjoy it
Ed Jarvis

 

[Bill Boehme]

Hi folks! I will be picking up a Vicmarc VL300 Short Bed 2004 vintage with many upgrades. I have many questions about it since I have not actually touched the machine yet. Is this group still active? I could use your collective knowledge. Thanks, Mike

That's really ancient history from the old vBulletin days. There was hardly any activity in the community groups.

 

[Mike Sooley]

I think the community was an old feature not carried over in the current XenForo setup. Just ask questions in this discussion forum, and those of us with Vicmarc lathes try to answer any questions.

Differences in older Vicmarc lathes often come down to the base, motor and VFD drive chosen after importing the upper cast iron section from Australia. Crafts Supply imported many of the Vicmarc lathes and added their own lower section below the lathe bed and painted it to match.

Thanks for responding Karl. The VL 300 ShortBed has a 2004 serial number, but was upgraded in 2014 to a 3 HP Leeson motor. The VFD was also upgraded in 2014. Do you know if my existing 240 Volt/20 AMP circuit will be sufficient for the 3 HP Leeson? Also, it would be nice to know the exact dimensions of the footprint as we are crafting a plywood base to help transport it. From your comment it seems the footprint dimensions may vary a bit? Thanks, Mike

 

[Kevin Jenness]

I run a number of 3 hp motors on 20A circuits. Single phase ones are rated around 17A and that is about what your three phase unit will likely draw through the vfd.

 

[Mike Sooley]

I run a number of 3 hp motors on 20A circuits. Single phase ones are rated around 17A and that is about what your three phase unit will likely draw through the vfd.

Thanks for the info Kevin! I am still researching the VL300 and found an owners manual on line. The Vicmarc is pretty new to me. I turned on one many years ago and loved it. I can't wait to pick up this beauty and start turning!

 

[Nathan Roper]

How hard is it to separate a vl300 base from the lathe? I've got a line on a used one from 2005 and am wondering how I'm going to get it home. I was looking at it tonight and see there are the allen bolts attaching the lathe to base but didn't know if there was something else that would need to be taken apart as well. Obviously I'd need to get the belt off, I might need to remove the motor from the base as well but that seemed pretty straight forward. Hoping to get it into the bed of a pick up.

This one has a green 2 hp motor on it and has been used for several years by its current owner who bought it out of vegas from an older guy.

 

[Dave Delo]

Not sure how it would apply to a 2005 model but see the attachment for Vicmarc's current instructions on separating the machine from the base.

 

[Nathan Roper]

This one doesn't have an rpm display. It'd be nice if I could retrofit one though.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

Such add ons exist, but I have no first hand knowledge.

 

[Curt Fuller]

When I brought my 2007 VL300 home a few years ago I first removed the belt from the motor pulley. Then removed the headstock and tailstock from the bed. Then unbolted the bed (ways) from the stand. I left the motor in the stand along with all of the wiring. Mine is a shortbed but all of the individual parts with the exception of the tailstock required two people to carry them. Then I just re-assembled it in the reverse order. It was pretty simple, just very heavy.

 

[Larry Mercier]

I just sold my Vicmarc 300 long bed. When moving day arrived, the belt was removed from the lower (base) pulley and eight bolts removed from the lathe/base. The belt stayed on the top(lathe) pulley. After the tailstock and banjo were removed, two very burly men carried the two parts, one at a time, with the help of a strong hand truck,, up to the pick up truck. Everything went smoothly. I fully agree with Curt. The Vicmarc 300 is a very heavy lathe,

 

[Nathan Roper]

I picked up the VL300 on Saturday and with the help of a motorcycle lift got it where it needed to go. Two of us were able to lift the top then the base into the back of my truck without too much grunting.

Since posting here about it I did some searching and found a couple RPM/tach solutions. The first is a pre-built unit that is pretty plug and play, Trexon Tachulator for about $120 shipped. The second is a write up on how to build essentially the same thing from parts, Pro Trinket Tach which is about $50 shipped. That comes without a shell so you'd need to make or 3d print a box for it.

I had posted elsewhere here about the spray from some box elder I recently picked up so before I got the lathe I pulled everything I had screwed to the back wall and placed a 1/4" sheet of ply in the splash zone. I did rough out a 14.5" bowl after getting it leveled out and I was pretty impressed by how quiet the lathe ran. At least initially, I started to squeak after about 20 minutes and also started to wobble some when one of the leveling bolts shifted. (I need to put on a lock nut on two of the corners to keep them from adjusting.) I found the tool rest to be really hard to adjust so after I finished with the bowl I pulled the rest out of the banjo and sanded the shaft which didn't help at all. Looking into the hole on the banjo it looked like there were boogers in there so I sprayed some carb cleaner in and used a wire brush to loosen and clean out whatever was inside. That did the trick and now I get adjust height and position quickly and easily.

One thing I observed is at very low speed it kind of seems like there is a "lope" in the chuck spin. Like, its not constant. It will start turning then stall or slow a little before speeding back up. Does that make sense? Is this normal? I checked to see if the belt was maybe slipping and it didn't seem to be but I don't know how much tension is appropriate. (I did read in the manual there should be 10-15 mm of belt deflection...)

Anyway, I'm excited to have this new toy and will enjoy working to figure out new things and possibilities with it.

 

[Kevin Jenness]

One thing I observed is at very low speed it kind of seems like there is a "lope" in the chuck spin. Like, its not constant. It will start turning then stall or slow a little before speeding back up. Does that make sense? Is this normal? I checked to see if the belt was maybe slipping and it didn't seem to be but I don't know how much tension is appropriate. (I did read in the manual there should be 10-15 mm of belt deflection...)

I get the same effect when I turn my vfd way down (below about 40 rpm on my lathe.) I assume the vfd output gets funky at very low frequency, but it's not a problem.

That's an unusual looking bed extension. Factory supplied?

How do you like the banjo? Does the direct screw pressure on the tool rest post hold well?

 

[Nathan Roper]

That bed extension is actually a swing away. The silver thing just below indexes on a pin to lock the extension in place. I assume its factory but don't know for certain, it does have the crinkle blue paint and matches the lathe so I'd guess it is OEM.

Thats good to know about the vfd, that its not a defect on my lathe. Yeah the banjo does seem to hold the tool rest well. The rest moves a lot smoother now that I cleaned out the banjo opening for it but is tighter than I had on my nova. I don't know if it just needs to be cleaned out some more or if there is something else going on there. When I pulled the tool rest out and hit it with some sand paper I didn't notice any dings or marks from the screw so it must be hardened metal. One thing I did notice about the banjo is that due to its shape I couldn't position my tool rest exactly where I wanted it when working on bigger (14"+) bowls. There is a neck that comes up and interferes with the rim of of the bowl. I'm sure its just going to be a matter of learning the lathe but I did bang the banjo into the rim of the bowl I was working on a few times

I did get the squeal figured out as well. The previous owner had just replaced the spindle bearings and the pulleys were slightly out of alignment. The belt would shift a tooth and rub on the edge of the pulley under load. I watched the vicmarc video on changing out those bearings and saw that its just one set screw on the middle pulley up top that needs to be loosened and then you can adjust its position. I did that last night and fiddled with it to get it in the right spot. Too far over and the lockout pin would rub when in the "unlocked" position. It took a couple tries but was easy enough to adjust and tighten up. After making that adjustment I roughed a couple 7"-ish green bowls and then second turned my first bowl that I had started on back in June. No issues at all with the belt shifting and the lathe was nice and quiet.

 

[Nathan Roper]

Do any of you have the oneway easy core that you use on your vl300? I've seen that some people have wood spacers they use to set the base for each knife and wondered if anyone had those that would share the measurements with me. I skipped the #1 knife but did buy #'s 2, 3, and 4. Thanks.

 

[Doug Machin]

Just picked up a VL300 short bed. Late 1990's Craft Supply version.

Two of us got it up the ramp of a small UHaul. Engine hoist, dolly and hand truck simplified matters both going into the truck and back out. We were able to lift the bed and headstock and carry it, but the stand required the hand truck and a bit of grunting.

By the way, we were both over 60!

 

[Doug Machin]

Anyone know where to get bearings and a belt? Craft Supply?

 

[Jim McLain]

Anyone know where to get bearings and a belt? Craft Supply?

Craft Supplies, Timberbits or direct from Vicmarc.

 

[Doug Machin]

I get the same effect when I turn my vfd way down (below about 40 rpm on my lathe.) I assume the vfd output gets funky at very low frequency, but it's not a problem.

That's an unusual looking bed extension. Factory supplied?

How do you like the banjo? Does the direct screw pressure on the tool rest post hold well?

Try cleaning the potentiometer (speed control) with the appropriate spray for that application. Same issue here - fixed.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I get the same effect when I turn my vfd way down (below about 40 rpm on my lathe.) I assume the vfd output gets funky at very low frequency, but it's not a problem.

That's typical behavior for a basic volts-per-Hertz VFD and also the case to a lesser extent for a sensorless vector VFD. This is because of the extremely low frequency of the PWM synthesized three-phase power to the motor. For example, at a motor speed of 60 RPM, the synthesized frequency of the VFD output to the motor is only 2 Hz. This means that any reaction to fluctuations in load torque will be several seconds too late, hence the "hunting" observed in motor speed. By contrast, the lag at 1800 RPM motor speed is less than 0.05 seconds.

Try cleaning the potentiometer (speed control) with the appropriate spray for that application. Same issue here - fixed.

In this situation, a dirty pot isn't the culprit for erratic VFD-driven motor speed at very low RPM.

 

[Pat Wisniewski]

My Stubby adjusts to 0 rpm. My 2003 VL300 only adjusts down to about 40 rpm.

Is there a parameter one can change in the VFD to set minimum speed to zero rpm?

 

[robo hippy]

I have a 240, and it came with minimum speed, in low speed range of about 10 rpm.

robo hippy

 

[Curt Yaws]

I picked up a VL300 this week. It was much easier than I anticipated. I bought a set of 4- 4" stem casters on Amazon ($30). We laid a 4x4 across the underside of the base and used a car floor jack to lift one end. Bolted on the casters on that end, and then did the same on the other end. After that, we just rolled it up the ramp on a small utility trailer and strapped it in. Surprisingly easy.

 

[Wyatt Holm]

My Stubby adjusts to 0 rpm. My 2003 VL300 only adjusts down to about 40 rpm.

Is there a parameter one can change in the VFD to set minimum speed to zero rpm?

Yes you can adjust it to zero, but you risk burning up your motor. Why do you want to change it?

 

[Brian Gustin]

Yes you can adjust it to zero, but you risk burning up your motor. Why do you want to change it?

It can be handy to be able to simply twist the dial down to stop your lathe and then twist it back up to start it rotating again, especially if you are doing some detailed work that requires frequent starts and stops - easier to dial down and then back up that it is to reach over and flip switch on and off.. I've already used the minimum RPM feature on my new Jet to do just that - if you turn dial down below minimum RPM lathe stops.

- and there are those very rare times you'd like to be able to rotate the lathe super-slowly (about as fast as turning it by hand, but you got both hands free) such as during some embellishment operations (when there's no actual load on the project, so no load on motor other than the dead weight of the chuck & project) It'd be nice to be able to rotate it much more slowly.. when I need that slow of an RPM I'll throw it on my ancient patternmaker's lathe if possible and use the cheapo motor & VFD I got on amazon and programmed myself...

 

[robo hippy]

I have no clue as to where the idea came from that low rpm will burn up your motor. With my 3520A, my American Beauty, and now my Vicmark 240, they have had no problem. With the A, I sanded thousands of bowls with no heat problems. When I had my AB adjusted, with Brent's help, I kept putting my hand on the motor to check the temperature, and it ran cooler when sanding than it did when turning. I need those slow speeds for sanding my warped bowls. I called PM when the B model came out and the tech told me the reason for having the minimum speed being 50 rpm, up from the old about 10 to 15 rpm was "you motor will over heat and you will fry your electronics!" I told them that I had sanded thousands of bowls at speeds far less than 50 rpm and the tech told me, "We have done tests in our labs and your motor will over heat and you will fry your electronics." My guess is that the braking, which is essentially what the lathe does when sanding uses no power, or almost none. TEFC motors, totally enclosed fan cooled, need the fan if it is being worked, not if it is in idle speed. Some use it for sanding, others for finishing. When I am turning bowls, my lathe works up a sweat!

robo hippy

 

[Doug Rasmussen]

I have no clue as to where the idea came from that low rpm will burn up your motor.

Probably from the motor manufacturers. And it will. So the lathe makers are protecting themselves with this warning.

High end VFD rated motors have a constant speed fan mounted on the back end of the motors. That keeps the motor cooled no matter what speed it's run at. These type motors are a bit expensive to be putting on hobby lathes.