What's new
What's new

Two speed motor question

mmarquette

Cast Iron
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Bought a new to me 1940s Hendey lathe. It has a two speed motor. Can you shift from high to low and low to high while it is running with no load. or do you have to stop completely like when you change direction.
 
Bought a new to me 1940s Hendey lathe. It has a two speed motor. Can you shift from high to low and low to high while it is running with no load. or do you have to stop completely like when you change direction.

It has a clutch - if you want to be as easy as possible on the head stock gearing, disengage clutch before switching to high speed
 
A look in the manual (linked before for you) will show you the relieving attachment - which is why some lathes were sold with an additional range of low speeds via a two speed motor
 
The only issue is that with a 2 speed motor, going FROM high TO low should be done with a slight pause where nothing is connected, because you need to allow the motor magnetic fields to collapse before re-energizing it. Going from low to high isn't the same, the motor just kicks in and there may be a little current spike as it catches up. But going from High to Low, if the magnetic fields from the High configuration are still there when you energize Low, the motor is still a generator and you are now connecting two power sources that are out of synch with each other. Bad stuff can happen; blown fuses or tripped breakers if you are LUCKY, broken motor shafts or other parts, fried windings and/or nasty voltage spikes that kill nearby electronics if not. The magnetic field collapses really fast on a small motor, less than a second, so it doesn't need a long delay.

If you have a mag starter setup to change speeds, that delay is usually built-in to the controls because of the mechanical timing of the devices in that there is usually a mechanical interlock that ensures the High contactor is open before the Low contactor can close. If you have a manual switch, you usually have to pass through an Off position to go from High to Low, that gives you the delay too. Just don't roll your own switch configuration that eliminates that pause.
 
Have not even had time to inspect contactors. Will give them a look.makes sense about what happens going from high to low
 








 
Back
Top