Is an "almost free" Harrison L5 Mk1 worth bothering with?

Nope, just because an inverter can supply up to 400Hz doesn't mean to say it can run a motor at this speed. Final speed of a motor depends on the motor design which is also based around age. The big old British motors don't like to go above about 90 Hz before they get saturated and cause the machine to actually drop speed, the more you go above this slows them down more, makes them run hot and sound like they have lost a phase.

Not wanting to piss on Alan's parade but there are a lot of motors out there on early Colchester's and Harrisons's that are only 440v and can't be swapped to 240v three phase which is needed for an inverter. This is because the star point is buried inside the winding, it can be dig out and 3 extra wires brought out, sometimes it needs doing by a rewinder if the build up is complex.

All is not lost though as modern metric framed dual wound motors are not expensive if bought correctly.

John S.

Reply to
John S
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On or around Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:23:00 +0000, Bob Minchin enlightened us thusly:

Just a slight caution, make sure the spindle bearings are up to running at higher speeds. If you're going from 750 up to 1000 I doubt it makes a lot of odds, but if you want to make it run at about 2000, you need to be sure that the machine will take it.

Ages ago the school at which I was a pupil at the time got hold of a small, defunct, aveling-barford roller. This was fitted with a detuned ford side-valve, which was u/s. The tech lot got heir hands on it and fitted a spare austin 1300 engine. The teacher got onto Aveling and got some techincal info, one of which was "don't run the engine at more than 1800 rpm or you risk exploding the gearbox".

Reply to
Austin Shackles

and me in Canterbury.

Hi Alan, I just sent you a PM. I'm very local to you, feel free to contact me if you wish. Off for a doze now, too much turke..........zzzzzzzzz Richard

Reply to
Richard Shute

I had this on my L5, the original motor was a gigantic 6 pole motor.

415V only, speeds on the top plate 21 - 480 rpm. I remotored mine with a complete 1hp setup from Newton Tesla, as the lathe was free I could spend on the motor. Ive had no problems with the setup in several years (cant remember how many) If you search google group archives youll find the posts. As for speed I routinely make alloy parts for (micro) RC Helicopters with my L5 and my TOS mill. These are both reasonably sized 'industrial' machines, and the parts I make are usually about 15mm in the biggest dimension. I usually run mine at around 1000 rpm input speed (same as the original motor), so 480rpm spindle speed but I do use the inverter to speed it up, but its really quite noisy (gears mostly) when running fast, and as Im not in a 'production' environment if it takes a little longer to make a part it doesnt matter. Dont forget that SFM charts are usually production oriented, and as such are about getting the most parts out as fast as possible with a reasonable (for them) tool life. Going slower is nearly always an option. Pointy sharp tools help.

Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson

Mines not bolted down, in fact I think its moved 4 times around the garage since I got it...

As for looking at it here:

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help.

Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson

Further to all my questions about Mk1 Harrison L5s, the old codger doesn't look as if he can be bothered to sell it after all. In a fit of New Year madness and Esterlin Champagne I bought a Smart and Brown Model A Mk2 off eBay (item 230316370220). I think it will be lower risk and more of a "use it" rather than "rebuild it" project.

You can blame Richard Schute. My wife certainly does. There are some immensely helpful folks on here, not least the people telling us about fascinating silicone enhanced ladies who don't seem too interested in men. Thank you everyone. You'll all be rewarded, but sadly not in this life.

Happy New Year,

Alan

Reply to
Alan Ibbetson

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