Speed Controls for My Grizzly 462

[ken gibbs]

Attention All of You Rotor heads Out There!

Perhaps somebody could answer this question for me? Do you know of any off the shelf speed controls that I can adapt to My Grizzly 462? My concern is when you want to start a new bowl turning on a faceplate and with the spindle holding the tail stock end, my low end speed is about 650 rpm. Is down right scary until you get the workpiece turned into balance. If I could slow it down to, say 100 rpm, until I get the piece turned into a workable balance, my pucker factor would not get so high for a few minutes. Thanks a bunch for your advice.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Found this in the Announcements and wanted to give it a bump as I am sure not many members saw it.

[Roger Chandler]

I would recommend that you call Grizzly tech support and tell them what you want to do and why. The G0462 is mostly a spindle lathe...........as you said the low rpm is over 600 and the lathe is a bit light. The reason why so many have questions about these lathes is that the price point is so attractive.............it is an entry point lathe for a number of people who do not realize the speed issues related to turning bowls, especially when starting out with a less than balanced blank.

I would also recommend that you do your very best to get the blanks as balanced as you can with a chainsaw, but even then you will find some wood just is not balanced.........it can be more dense on one part than the other...........really makes it hard to work around.

Your lathe also has a reeves drive system..........I am not sure if the tech folks can help you much, but they might have a work around because this issue has been aired many times in the past.

If it were me, I would begin to keep my eyes open for a way to trade up or sell your lathe and get the G0632 16/42 lathe which is a clone of the Jet 1642 evs........that would be a major step in the right direction or if you have the financial means, and the space, then go for something like the PM3520b..............I have the 18/47 Grizzly lathe and it has been a superb performer for 4 1/2 years.

[Fred Belknap]

The G 0462 was my first lathe and I had the same problems you are having. I changed the position of the handle on the reeves drive and with a new belt it would go down to 550rpm, that is still to high to start an out of balance blank. I ended up putting it in a tool auction and got $100 for it and considered it a bargain. Rogers advice is very good. I now have the PM 3520B and it is a great lathe.

[Sparky Paessler]

I am not aware of an electronic option (drive) that you could drop in and control speed on a 110V single phase motor. you could go the mechanical route and replace the motor with a shaft that has a large and a small pulley driving the lathe from the small pulley and driving the large pulley on the shaft with a small pulley mounted on the motor that is mounted elsewhere. This would take a lot of mechanical work but if you are handy at stuff would not be too expensive. another route to go would be to replace the motor with a 3 phase 220V motor and install a single phase to 3 phase inverter (drive) that you could control the speed with. This would give you the speed control capabilities of the larger more expensive lathes but would be expensive to install. I am struggleing with the same problem on a friends lathe that she was given and wants to learn to turn bowls on. It's slowest speed is 950RPM! I think she is going to have to do spindle work until she can upgrade her lathe.

[Dave Paine]

I do not know if the NOVA 1624 motor is a direct replacement, but if it was, Teknatool now sell a DVR motor upgrade (Digital Variable Reluctance). The motor speed control is mounted on the motor.

I have the NOVA DVR 1624 lathe. This speed control works well. Lowest speed on my lathe is 100 rpm.

http://www.teknatool.com/products/la...624upgrade.htm

Providing this as FYI. I think too expensive for you, the upgrade is more than the original cost of your lathe.

[Rich Harkrader]

Have a look at this:
http://www.deanocraft.com/lathe-upgrade.html

[Dan Cannon]

I have the same lathe and often wonder the same thing. I think I'm going to upgrade my lathe before I get around to trying this, but have wondered if something like this would work...

http://m.ebay.com/itm/121282460984?nav=SEARCH

[ken gibbs]

I have the same lathe and often wonder the same thing. I think I'm going to upgrade my lathe before I get around to trying this, but have wondered if something like this would work...

http://m.ebay.com/itm/121282460984?nav=SEARCH

Thanks guys. I wonder why the marketplace has not addressed this issue? I am not able to do an upgrade right now and I know that there are lots of choices available that would include a rotation reverse and very slow speeds. But since I have to live on a retirement income, it is not a realistic option. And I have become reasonably competent at band sawing turning blanks prior to the thrilling initial turn to round out the blank. Just ducking a lot is not a long term option. Would it be possible to install an initial, slow speed motor as an option with a very slow rotation drive?

[John Lifer]

To answer your question, it is because of the price point and what consumers are willing to spend on a lathe.
If you are a beginner, do you want to shell out several $K to get an ultimate lathe? No, you want to spend a few hundred. and for that, what you have is what you get. Spindle lathe. nothing more. Turn small items and pens. Get good and sell lathe and buy a better one. You might, be able to source a lower speed motor from scrap yard or elsewhere. Or you can cobble together a speed reducer with some bearings, shaft and pulleys. Do a search and you can find a number of alterations out there. But unless you are good scrounger and decent DIYer, you are still better off selling and buying something else. (and used lathes aren't all bad either) Good luck and enjoy!

[ken gibbs]

Just adding my experience yesterday starting a walnut bowl from 3" stock. I am starting to turn a 14" bowl from 3" stock from walnut I cut myself 14 years ago. I marked the piece and cut my circle as close as I could on my band saw and mounted a 4" faceplate. For safety's sake, I try my best to use my tailstock to hold the piece until I can get the turning balanced on edge and on at least one side. Then I take off the faceplate and glue on a piece for the 4" chuck to hold the turning. I do a remount on the drive end chuck and use the tailstock until I can get the remount balanced and ready to turn. Then I take the tailstock out of my way and shape and scrape the bowl. Am I leaving anything out?

[Paul Williams]

Have not tried this myself, but there are a lot of 2hp DC treadmill motors around. Would keeping the reeves drive but replacing the motor with a used treadmill motor and speed control be an option.