Identifying Monarch Drive

[Chips Everywhere]

Looking into buying a Monarch 10ee that has a electrical cabinet like the one pictured. My phones battery was dead so couldn’t take pictures, so found these online to show what’s inside the machine I’m interested in. It looks to be factory installed and has a VFD and some other electronics. Does someone have any information and name for this type of drive. Are these reliable or problematic?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Steve FROM SoCal]

If there is a VFD in a JIC cabinet on an older 10EE then it has an AC motor and drive. There are some good and some bad, HP and how the motor is installed along with control integration. The motor should be at least 5 HP and use the Monarch gear box to have some torque at lower speeds. Monarch uses 7.5 HP AC motors with VFD in later machines. If the lathe has ELSR does the drive function with the machine controls? There are a many 10EE's with AC motor/VFD out there, in general for common turning they seem to work fine.

 

[Chips Everywhere]

The VFD retrofit was done by Monarch back in 2004. 10hp was installed.

I guess as long as it turns on and runs, should be fine and should not shy away from it right? The machine is in good shape otherwise.

 

[Steve FROM SoCal]

With that information I would be inclined to think it was a good install.

 

[Chips Everywhere]

With that information I would be inclined to think it was a good install.

Getting off topic here a bit, but are you able to swap a Inch gearbox with an Inch/Metric gearbox? I saw the build you got going. Do the holes line up on both of the gear boxes? Any other part required?

I’m assuming an electronic lead screw would be a easier solution to adding metric threading capabilities to a inch lathe, vs trying to fit a gearbox, aside from using the metric gear kit.

 

[Steve FROM SoCal]

The inch/metric gear box "fits" with some rework to the inch only beds. My progress has been slowed by weather, too cold to paint. The inch gear box and the I/M gear box mount to the bed in the same way using the same hole pattern. The I/M box has a countershaft in the drive that requires a 4.5" half-round detail machined/ground into the bed. The butt end of the bed where the end covers are also has to be machined/ground to allow the end gearing of the I/M box to locate properly.

An electronic leadscrew would be an "easier" path if starting from zero. My lathe was I/M from the start with dual reading dials. I do work on European stuff so the metric feature was more important than bed length for my initial use. I looked at long bed lathes before getting the one I have. I was lucky to find this bed with leadscrew and feed shaft for a reasonable price a few hundred miles away.