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1960's BP Power Feed motor dead. Source for another one

kernelmustard

Plastic
Joined
Aug 27, 2018
The motor on my 1960's era BP Power Feed has died. A screw from the capacitor cover fell into the motor and damaged the windings. This is the VERY old gearbox style power feed unit and apparently the motor was made by the OEM just for Bridgeport. It is NOT a 6F or 8F. Has anyone had luck finding another one of these motors or modifying the gearbox to accept a newer style motor? If I can't find a way to fix or repair this, it becomes a bigger pain (and $$$) adapting the longer leadscrew to use a Servo style feed unit. I'm still in the process of getting quotes to rewind the motor, but one company has already told me $900-$1200, which is out of my price range.
 
The only feeds I have seen have the three phase motor which does not have a capacitor cover.

Single phase motor? Whatever it is, not hard to make a plate that accepts the feed on one side and a new motor on the other side.
 
IIRC, the end of the motor shaft had a worm machined on it. Could be wrong, pictures would help. Are you sure about the srew? Single phase would have be very rarey. The motors are scarce as it is.
JR
 
We have a few on machines we bought at auctions or got traded in, but only the 3 phase variant.

Jon
H&W Machine Repair

An example of one that is getting ready to be repainted.

20180912_064621.jpg
 
Likely that someone in the past has added the capacitor to allow a three phase motor to run on single phase ?
 
IIRC, the end of the motor shaft had a worm machined on it. Could be wrong, pictures would help. Are you sure about the srew? Single phase would have be very rarey. The motors are scarce as it is.
JR

If so, there are whole tribes and nations of such motors.

- DC, they have powered windshield wipers, power windows, electric antennas and reduction gearboxes in general.

- AC, 1-P or 3-P, gear-drive again, power-saws, garage door openers to ..you-name-it. Machine-tool feeds, even!

Redmond, Bodine, Bison, Dodge/Master, and many others the makers.

With "enough" information, finding a re-purposable one should be waay cheaper than that rebuild cost.

But you DO need to derive those specs. Somehow.
 
Yes, it is a single phase motor. There's a worm gear on the shaft end and it bolts directly to the gearbox. I've looked into getting it rewound, but I thought I'd see if there was any other sources out there first.
 
Yes, it is a single phase motor. There's a worm gear on the shaft end and it bolts directly to the gearbox. I've looked into getting it rewound, but I thought I'd see if there was any other sources out there first.

I'd surely look into the possibility of pressing the worm-geared armature shaft out and re-installing it into a different motor before I'd try hand-rewinding the old one.

Brand-new small motors - wound at high speed on highly specialized machinery - are dirt-cheap - many off the back of consumer appliances and hand power-tool market model changes that leave them remaindered or as surplused "spares" by the multiple thousands.

Rewinding "onesies" remains highly labour-intensive.

2CW
 
Rewinding a fractional HP motor can be a DIY project. We were doing in high school. Probably 8 hours work and it's not rocket surgery.
JR

8 hours for young eyes, supple hands .still "fun" and a learning experience, yazz.

Korean contract staff PA&E post fire department, Long Binh re-did an "unobtanium" late 1940's "explosion proof" Acetylene plant Buda 5K W semi-Diesel starter for me, 1968.

Unwound, then strung the original wire, Copper-brazed the break, strung the wire "many laps" around the timber uprights of an open-sided tin-roofed sunshade equipment and chemical storage shed. The guys then "walked" the perimeter with sandpaper to remove old varnish. Walked it again with hog-bristle brushes to re-varnish. Tediously rewound and bamboo-splint shimmed it. Baked over a charcoal fire in half an oil drum. Worked flawlessly.

Hours? Lots of "waiting time", but I'd guess about 40 m/h, all-up.

I'd put a whole new drive system onto a mill before I'd risk crash-landing out of frustration, and pitching the remains in the bin, 20 hours in, meself. EG: "Just don't START!"

It ain't a classic Packard V-12 nor Cattlejack V16, Series 90 rare.

:)
 
Anybody who can buy a new BP is not poor.

That was almost 30 years ago. I'm just an old retired fart now. The last piece of equipment I bought was a well used Powermetic vertical band saw. $400 if you must know. I did sell my big Miller wire feed.

As for the OP, if the motor was mine, I'd be looking at different shops or trade schools. Gotta be something cheaper than what he was quoted.
JR
 
If you cannot source the 'right' thing, you may be able to craft a bearing support hanging out the back, with belt drive turning the stripped-down shaft with the OEM worm. Or, make a coupler to graft the original worm onto your new motor.

Rewinding is easier if you resign yourself to use new wire, instead of stripping and re-varnishing the original. The electrons won't know...
 
No, mine is 3-phase. Why are you looking for single phase? Isn't your mill 3-phase or did you replace the head motor?

Ken
 








 
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