428 replies to this topic

[Hondarider]

I just ran out to Home Depot for a junction box to get this party started.



Now for some wiring and testing.

[DougT]

It's too neat. It will never work!     Does look like it should work though.

[DougT]

Just don't end up like this guy.  http://www.liveleak....=48a_1454716898

[Hondarider]

Just don't end up like this guy.  http://www.liveleak....=48a_1454716898

Oh no! I'm not even going to watch that. I've spent enough time around machine shops to know just how horrifying things can go if you don't pay attention.

[backwoods]

I'm just seeing your rebuild now for some reason I haven't seen it sooner. It's awesome that you found the tractor you grew up wanting to own, an I'm sure Mr. D would be proud of how your taking your time to bring it back to its glory that it once was.

[Hondarider]

Slow news day in Garden Tractor Land...

 

Instead of working on the Panzer, I spent the past 2 days working on my 1958 South Bend lathe.  It's not a tractor, but it is a piece of good ol' American machinery...built in an era of quality and longevity and pride...quality castings...precise machined surfaces...designed for decades of dependable service...no planned obsolescence...no cut-rate materials...just good stuff.  I dig it!

 

 

With my circuit laid out and most of the materials on hand, I've been slowly working the assembly process.  First off, I gutted out the old wiring and the greasy BX metal conduit; replacing it with modern Carlon liquid tite nonmetallic conduit.

 

Having settled on the basic layout of the wiring, I set to reconfiguring the FWD/OFF/REV switch from the 3 phase configuration to a single phase set up.  In the previous configuration, there were no motor contactors so the switch handled all of the contacting duties.  This was evident by the erosion on the contacts...550VAC will take its toll on any electrical contacts

 

 

Fortunately, the switch contacts are very robust and easily removed, so I pulled them out, flushed everything with contact cleaner, and then polished them up a bit with Scotchbrite.

 

 

 

[Hondarider]

I opted to lessen the load on the contacts even further by wiring all 3 sets of contacts in parallel.  At 115VAC, powering nothing more than the coils of the contactors, these things should last for 100 years.

 

 

The circuit is dead simple.  A common 115VAC (Black) will send power the contactor M1 for FWD or contactor M2 for REV based on position of the switch.  There's zero possibility of energizing both contactors simultaneously so I suspect it will work perfectly.  The only thing that I don't know for sure is whether it will work for instantaneous directional changes or if it will have to coast to a stop first.  I've never been a fan of the instant reverse function, but I've watched real machinists perform it with total impunity while cutting threads.  It always felt a little too violent to me, but I'm an amateur at best...

 

I polished up the fun switch while I had it all apart...

 

Edited by Hondarider, February 07, 2016 - 08:11 PM.

[Hondarider]

My apologies for a very slow week. Work was crazy and there was zero opportunity to gather the required materials or to even venture into the garage. However, since I spent the morning regaling Mike and Tom at work with my tale of mechanical deeds and busted knuckles, I thought I better get back down to business. First order of business has got to be cleaning up this disaster. There's hardly room to function.

[KennyP]

Looks like tons of space to put more stuff to me!

[Hondarider]

Looks like tons of space to put more stuff to me!

 

I like the way you think!

[jabelman]

I spy 1/2 a bottle of corona!

panzer is coming along nice

Edited by jabelman, February 12, 2016 - 09:15 PM.

[Hondarider]

Woke up bright and early on a Saturday morning...anxious to take a shot at getting my lathe back in service...10 degrees outside...brrrr...

Cranked up the thermostat and zipped out for an early breakfast with some friends while the garage got up to a hospitable temperature.

Home by 8:00AM and the garage is at 65 degrees...perfect temperature for working.

I had to run around last night looking for a power plug that would fit into my NEMA 6-50 outlet that I use to power my welder. Home Depot was a bust, but the local True Value hardware store (20 miles away in the opposite direction) had exactly what I needed...not only that, but the guy working there knew exactly what I was looking for when I called on the phone and he pointed me to it as soon as I walked in the door...an actual employee with subject matter expertise...I actually felt a twinge of pride and hope...maybe the small town American hardware store isn't completely dead...maybe I should write them a thank you note.

[Hondarider]

I put the power plug on a 10' length of flexible 4-10 power cord and set to wiring up the lathe.

I spent a considerable portion of my daily commute this week thinking about my proposed wiring diagram and wondering if I was missing something. It occurred to me that the configuration of the switch in my original drawing was not exactly the configuration I found when I opened up the switch housing. So I made some last minute changes before I set to running wires...



Having built some really large, complex pieces of automated production equipment over the years...some with hundreds of components and miles of wiring...I utilize a simple, but effective (IMHO) technique. Every time I run a wire and make the connections, I highlight it on the drawing with a marker. When every line on the schematic is highlighted, I go back and tighten my connections one last time, give everything a good tug, look for anything scary, and then I pull the trigger.

Most of the time, the smoke stays on the inside of the components in question and things work as planned...most of the time...

[Hondarider]

Parallel Processing - while I'm out in the garage playing electronics technician, I thought I'd degrease the pulley in the kitchen sink...some hot water and some Purple Power degreaser should loosen things up a bit...



Sorry honey! At least I'm not baking bearings in the oven.

[Hondarider]

As I mentioned earlier, I'm using Liquid Tight flexible conduit for all the wiring. It's super easy to cut to length and it should keep oil and metal chips out of the electrical components for decades.

Time to construct a harness to get from the motor to the contactor panel. Neat handwriting and a fine tip Sharpie helps a lot.



Once the power cable and the whip for the motor were attached, the plastic box got be a handful. It kept flipping over and falling off the bench so I decided to mount it to a steel panel from the bottom of the lathe. Since the contactors are thru-bolted to the box, I'd need spacers to mount the box if I want it to sit squarely on the flat surface. In a brief, but uncharacteristic, moment of forethought, I actually picked up some nylon spacers at Tractor Supply last night.