What Motor am I dealing with?

Heyho!

This seemed the best place in the forum to post this.

I found a motor on eBay which I want to use with my lathe.
Generally speaking it’s a 3 Phase Motor und the ~4hp Range.
The kicker: It has a variable speed control.

But it’s not a VFD or anything like that. I actually have no idea how it does it. That’s where you gentleman come in.

Any info on that motor type?

Here are pictures in high resolution:
Variable speed 3 Phase Motor - Album on Imgur

Google "Elektra Faurndau" and you will get many hits, some with pictures of motors similar to the one in question.

Bill

I just do not know anything about this motor system.

However, if I had the choice, I would NOT try to use it for your lathe. It is a specialty motor, it is very oversized for the purpose, and you would likely be much better off if you got an ordinary induction motor.

The photo depicts a "Brush Shifting Motor". And a -motorized- one at that!

A motor like this is found on printing presses.

It appears to be in regal condition... but the innards could have issues.

This kind of motor would be wasted if used on a lathe.

As mentioned, find an ordinary motor for your lathe.

John

I already have a pretty good Motor on my lathe - a 3-Phase Motor, forward and reverse, 2,2Kw @1480rpm.
I got this Motor here dirt cheap (was going to be thrown awy, or rather salvaged next week).
Since my Lathe doesn't have a geared headstock (Its from 1928, with a 4 speed flatbelt drive), - this Motor is the perfect match!

I also got it wired up and running today, heres a quick vid: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Good! Some things are best solved by just going ahead and trying it.

Real pain in the a,, ge called them aca. brush shifting motor lots to go wrong, old teck... Use a standard motor and a vfd...Phil

A Repulsion Start - Induction Run motor has some similar looking parts, but they were not variable speed.

Actually what you have there is called a "Schrage motor", used a lot in textile machinery coming from Europe back when electronic VFDs were not available and almost always used on flat belt drive systems (which works out handy for you!). Do a search on that term to find out more if you are interested. There are a number of the videos on them but most are from India because they ended up with a lot of old textile machinery taken out of England that had Schrage motors on it, so they have to teach people about how they work in order to maintain them.

You were lucky to find one in working order, most of them are so old (and not made any more) that nobody here knows how to repair them. When yours dies, you may have that trouble.