Union Jubilee Clutch.

[AlanBeckett]

Interesting idea. Look on the bright side; it has music, but at least he had a Tripod for the camera.
I'm in the lucky position of having a Milling machine so it's not much of a problem.
You should have used a Slot Drill for a plunge cut like that young Col.

Alan

[Retired]

Hi,

Make a note Joe to add a welder and some angle iron on your list to Santa this year. I like to keep a stock of raw materials (junk).

We are indeed fortunate David to have You Tube at our disposal; I find lots of useful information and the videos make learning a pleasure. A picture paints a thousand words and to watch a video showing how a job is done is much better than reading about it.

A lot of thought must have gone into the making of the key-way jig; it is kept very basic and simple but once completed the jig performs extremely well. I found the most difficult part in making my copy of the jig was to add the "flat" on the point of the "V" to allow alignment whilst welding. I had to cut the flat in stages as my Clarke lathe is rather small but it did the job with a bit of patience. The jig will prove most useful; it occupies little space; has no moving parts to wear out and cost nothing monetary wise to make.

I don't have a "mill" Alan so I use whatever gets the job done for me; it's amazing what can be achieved using a lathe; if I only have an end milling cutter and I want to plunge cut using the lathe then I can always use a drill bit first to start a slot allowing access for the end mill. There is usually more than one way to do a job with a little thought. The correct cutter makes life easier but I'm not in a hurry.

Kind regards, Col.

[Retired]

Hi,

A couple of days ago I made a second counter-shaft from new but this time cut the correct width key-way at 4mm. I didn't want to bodge the first shaft by fitting a stepped key which would have been a pain to make so I thought it much better to start from scratch. One benefit was that I now had the key-way cutting jig so the actual cutting of the key-way was simple.

   
Correct 4mm key-way cut.

With sheet ice on the inside of the extension windows this morning I put the heat on and braved the workshop for an hour. I did some measuring taking notes of the motor position regarding belt alignment then set about fitting the outer clutch plate to the end of the new counter-shaft. The shaft was placed on end on top of the vice and the outer clutch plate was gently tapped home with a small hammer against a small thick piece of metal to prevent damage. The shaft diameter was perfect giving a nice tight interference fit; the end of the shaft was threaded at 9mm x 1.5mm as the original air con compressor; the nut will be run on in due course.

Out of interest I then inserted the shaft into the pillow block bearings and so far it's looking good.

   
Outer clutch plate fitted.

By now the ice had just about melted so the windows have been cleaned and the water removed; I love this perishing climate (NOT).

Every bit I do moves the job along and I enjoyed tinkering around this morning in spite of handling the frozen metal.

Kind regards, Col.

[AlanBeckett]

That looks good young Col.
It's very satisfying when something goes together nicely.
It was -5.5 here last night and it's still -2.1 according to my Weather Station, so I'm not braving it yet.

Alan

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Big Al. I don't know what the temperature is here today but it's not warm and forecast to get worse on Friday with heavy snow. I could hire our back garden out for sledging?

I want to do some work in the garage but I don't want to do it whilst wrapped up like an Eskimo. Even a big drill press can bite when operated with cold hands and the power saws are a no go area at the moment. I can't complain because this time last year I was digging up drains after breaking through very thick concrete to reach them.

Perhaps global warming will visit Yorkshire this year but I'm not holding my breath.

Kind regards, Col.

[Retired]

Hi,

The late Bill Jones; master wood;bone and ivory turner used lathes with slipping belt clutches but his lathes ran flat belts. Before embarking on this electro magnetic clutch I had seriously considered adding a slipping belt clutch as this is very easy to do only requiring the motor to be hinged with some operating mechanism. I was unsure though because all my my lathes are fitted with "V" belts hence I opted for the electric clutch.

One thing I was concerned about in installing the electric clutch was the sudden engagement of the drive once the magnet was energized?

I'd like to thank Ted (ex 2 base) for his kind help in supplying information and working drawings of a home made cone clutch. Ted has also fitted an electric clutch so I could benefit from his experiences.

I've now abandoned the electric clutch idea; the project had stalled due to the dire weather but for once I believe the weather has helped me in making me sit back and take a fresh look at what I was doing. I'm certain I could have fitted the electric clutch because I had done all the difficult work so in this respect it can't be classed as a failure; I've gained a lot of experience and enjoyed the project thus far; the money spent on bearings etc isn't wasted as I still have these for other projects.

I've been a prisoner in the bungalow due to the weather; both the workshop and garage have been out of bounds but during this time I've been busy gaining knowledge from the Internet covering a number of proposed projects. Whilst browsing "You Tube" I came across a very interesting video demonstrating how to cut a timing pulley; the video held a little gem for me; I noticed the guys lathe is fitted with a slipping "V" belt clutch proving it can be done so now I'll adopt this method and will continue with this project once the weather improves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCiujbcrQzc

I'm on with another project at the moment but this project requires bench space; yesterday I wanted to move the Clarke engineering lathe from the workshop into the garage but it was too risky and I might have suffered personal injury as our paths were covered in ice. This morning I awoke to torrential horizontal rain; the ice has gone and most of the snow has disappeared overnight. Half an hour ago a miracle occurred; the rain stopped and suddenly the sun came out so I've just tired myself out running to and from the garage whilst moving the lathe and other kit. I've been buying materials through eBay and my current project is veneering so I'll add this shortly once I'm hands on.

Kind regards, Col.

[Retired]

Hi,

At last I'm working on the Jubilee once again after breaking off due to dire weather conditions.

Many thanks to Ted for sending me detailed drawings of a cone clutch which I found most interesting.

After going to so much trouble obtaining the electro magnetic clutch then spending a lot of time adapting it for the Jubilee I decided against fitting it which might sound a bit strange? I really did like the idea of flicking a switch to start and stop the lathe whilst leaving the motor running at full speed but I did wonder what effect using such a clutch would have in actual use? I'm powering the lathe through a VFD (Inverter) allowing me to install a 3 phase 1.1Kw motor whilst allowing the motor to run from a standard 240V single phase supply; the VFD needs protecting from dust so I plan to remotely mount it from the lathe; the VFD will be switched on; the speed adjusted then I can control the lathe through the clutch; this is the plan.

I've been thinking about the action of the magnetic clutch and think it might be rather too fierce in take up accelerating the work piece from zero to maximum speed in a blink and in wood turning 2,000 revs or even higher is quite common between centers. I had thought about this right at the start but I was interested in having a go at fitting such a clutch.

My alternative plan is to fit a "slipping belt" clutch; this is about as basic a clutch can be. The motor is arranged so that it can hinge slackening the belt therefore breaking the drive. Over the last couple of days I've made decent progress and I've just come out of the garage having spent the afternoon metal bashing. The pictures below show the original motor mount with the new hinged motor mount attached. I've used off-cuts of metal I had to hand but it is robust and should withstand anything a 1.1Kw motor can throw at it. The welding isn't pretty but certainly strong enough for this application and the hinge rod is 1/2" dia mild steel so should last many years. For speed I welded everything rather than use nuts and bolts; it will look OK with a coat of paint. Next job will be to sort out a lever of some kind to lift/lower the motor.

I'm using 8mm stainless steel machine screws which I bought this morning at Rufforth costing 10p each to secure the motor; the underside of the base has been countersunk to accept these. All sharp edges/corners have been removed with an angle grinder.

I'm pleased I had a go with the magnetic clutch and I'm confident I had reached the point where I knew I would succeed should I have carried on with it; I like tinkering around so nothing has been lost; the slipping belt clutch in incredibly simple so hopefully I'll have the Jubilee fully sorted shortly; I'm also considering painting the Jubilee to tidy it up. More to follow but the pictures tell the story better.

Kind regards, Col.

[ex 2 Base]

HelloColin, I see you are still Beavering away with the lathe clutch job. I have in my garage a quarter horse motor with clutch for sale. The motor is off an industrial sewing machine and is in working order.
I don't know what size motor your lathe needs. Generally speaking most folk fit larger motors than is needed, I have no experience of wood working lathes. Last year I was given a woodworking lathe but as I'm allergic to wood dust I passed it on to my neighbour,he said he would like it for his shed, I don't think it had a clutch.
Ted in Scarborough where its cloud, wall to wall, but was glorious yesterday.

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Ted; yes I'm still at it with this project. I was brought up with big machinery from the age of 15 so big is beautiful for me and I like machines to have plenty of grunt. I happened to have two 1.1KW 3 phase motors to hand which I obtained for a thank you whilst I worked at Brook Motors where they were manufactured so I'm happy to install one into the Jubilee; I doubt very much if a nasty dig in with a skew chisel will stop this motor especially as it is being powered through the VFD with overload boost.

Its a pity your clutch motor isn't bigger Ted or I would have been pleased to buy it from you.

I've just had some fun in the workshop and failed miserably to get this slipping belt clutch to work. This morning I ordered a clutch cable through eBay only costing £4.99 thinking it would save playing around a lot with linkages to get this clutch to work by lifting the motor? Out of curiosity I set everything up and because of the opening in the pedestal base I was very limited to the amount of hinging of the motor but thought 1.5" would be sufficient to break the drive to the mandrel; how wrong I was; at maximum motor lift the mandrel was still being driving flat out no doubt due to the "A" section belt; the mandrel didn't even slow down when I tried to brake the pulley using a length of timber; had a flat belt been fitted then this would surely have slipped given this amount of motor lift; I even tried to gain extra lift by installing the "T" box to the side of the motor rather than have it on top but it didn't work. With the motor fully lifted the belt was very slack; just goes to show how good these belts are at transmitting power.

All in all a total failure but I'm not too worried as this is only a set back: I have other options; I can simply use the VFD to control the motor but I don't want to do this; I could set to and make a new cone clutch to the drawing design Ted kindly sent me; I could install the electro magnetic clutch to see how this would perform and I could also buy a motor with a clutch already installed; these are available through eBay.

Apart from the dire weather I've so far enjoyed tinkering around with this project and its a pity the slipping belt didn't work; strange isn't it that for the last 50 years I've been preventing belts from slipping? I was using a brand new belt and the original aluminium pulleys.

A thought has just occurred to me; I am hinging the motor towards the rear of the lathe so in effect the motor is driving the belt downwards; have I slipped up and perhaps the belt would slip if the motor was hinged in the opposite direction? As I say I'm used to getting belts to drive not to slip so this is something new to me; I might experiment a bit more before abandoning this idea? If there is two ways to do a job I always do it the wrong way first but it adds to the fun.

Kind regards, Col.

[Retired]

Hi,

An idea just occurred to me regarding perhaps I might have hinged the motor the wrong way; rather than spend double the time already wasted to try the idea out I've just reversed the motor; it hasn't made any difference at all.

The pictures below show the lack of space giving extremely poor access to the belt and preventing me from seeing the belt under power; I had considered installing a bearing on an arm to move the belt away from the pulley when the motor was tilted?

Kind regards,Col.