Todays Disaster

[545Kurt]

Hi Guy's
Been a while since I last posted. Previously I was having motor troubles which ended up being a failed armature. Thanks for the help on that one. I purchased a new armature and installed it and was back machining. I got about 5-6 hrs use out of the armature and the same problem occured. The motor turns slowly and will not speed up with the speed dial the motor gets very hot in a short duration to the point that it starts to smoke. The motor worked awesome during the first 5-6 hrs time period. I checked out everything again and came to the same conclusion that the armature had failed. I e-mailed the company that I purchased the part from and they sent a replacement under warranty. Cool. I put the motor back together and found the exact same problem right away. I e-mailed the company and they advised that I should check out the board. I took the whole unit in to an electrical shop in town and they found the board to be fine but the motor to have a problem. They found that the motor was drawing 7 amps and would not speed up. The guy at the shop said that the motor should draw about 3 amps at start up and drop off once it comes up to speed. We even hooked up the motor to a seperate DC power source and found the same problem. Here comes the bad part. Tonight I was doing some more testing just to make dam sure that there was no problems with my board. I was checking voltages on the board with the motor running and board literally went up in smoke. I guess the board had enough of trying to run shorted out armatures. After having a smoke myself to cool off I cleaned off all the black with some alcohol and inspected the damage. I found 4 burnt traces and several burnt components on the board. So here I sit with not only another bad armature but a completley fried board.

Kurt

[blades]

Wow, so now you need a new motor AND a new controller board! Sorry to hear about all that hassle.
Specifically what machines controller board are you refering to? I got a great replacement board from a surplus place that someone mentioned on the mill forum. Worked great, and was only around $70 if I recall correctly. Can probably find the link for you if you're interested.
BTW: that was a controller board on a X2 mini-mill, which should work on the 7x10 lathe as well.

[545Kurt]

Sure post the link. I am open to all options right now. I am considering getting a higher output motor and board to match so it is time to do some serious shopping.
Kurt

[blades]

Here you go Kurt,
https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.a...tname=electric

I will say that it worked very smoothly, but I only put about 1/2 hr. of run time on it before selling the mill. Another guy on the mill forum was very happy with this unit after burning up a couple other type of boards.

- Bill