I have a 1961 10ee. When I got it someone had removed the thyratron electronic drive and replaced it with a variac. Of course it was awful. I'm an electrical engineer, which came in handy, for a change, in the shop. The drives for the 10ee were actually two variable power supplies. A big one for the armature that could go from about 20V up to 200 volts at 20 amps. The other power supply was normally 100 volts but could reduce its output to around 20 volts or so. This smaller power supply provided current for the field winding. If you started the lathe at the lowest speed, the field voltage would be 100V and the armature would be at the lowest voltage, anound 20V or so. As you increased speed, the big power supply feeding the armature increased its voltage to 200V. At this point the motor would be running about 2000RPM. The armature voltage could not be increased any more at this point to increase the speed. To increase the speed, the big power supply continued to output 200V while the little power supply started to reduce its voltage to the field. The speed of the DC motor is controlled by the motors back EMF, or voltage the motor itself is generating. When the back EMF equals the applied voltage, the motor stops drawing current and regulates itself at that speed. When the field voltage is decreased, the generator (back EMF) effect is reduced, causing the motor to run faster so that its back EMF matches the applied voltage to the armature. That's why a shunt wound DC motor can explode if it loses power to the field winding. The 10ee has all kind of safety circuits to shut the motor down if the field current drops too low, so no worries there. I built a motor control system for my 10ee and it has been working great for the last 24 years. My 10ee was geared (pulleyed) for 3000 RPM spindle speed.
I was an electronic technician at NASA on SkyLab and Soyus keeping the Apollo Command Module simulators running. This is what we would charitably call a kludge.
Hi Keith, regarding electric motors, there is a book on the market (written by a man in the USA) “electric motor repair” Rosenberg is the author. I encouraged many apprentice armature winders to get this book as a learning aid that would help in almost any circumstance. The beauty of this book is that it isn’t written for engineering students and graduates . I qualify this statement with over 40 years experience in the manufacture, repair and maintenance of electric motors. Great show as usual👍👍
I know that book. Excellently well put together little gem of a book. Even as someone who doesn't do this for a living, just as a hobby at best, it's easy to understand and use.
Regarding armatures and so forth, who sells the actual materials to rebuild a small armature such as the insulation paper for the slats, the electrical varnish, the shrink paper ends, the twine to tie things up together, and so forth? If anyone knows of a good supplier specifically for this I would greatly appreciate it. Hello from San Antonio, TEXAS too!
@@jtg2737 I've purchased "magnet" wire with class H insulation from Temco in the past. Some of the other supplies can be harder to track down, usually because we don't know the correct "name" to search for...
@@jtg2737 There's a motor repair shop down off Rhapsody by the airport. Cant remember the name. But, they are GENIUS motor repair guys. They would probably sell you the supplies you need, or at least point you at their supplier--hope this helps.
Keith, you should get in touch with Uncle Doug, or Terry @ D-Lab,, those old tube rectifiers are way more reliable and simpler to repair. If you have the schematics they can rebuild/ repair what you have.
You could contact KB Controls in Florida. They have cost effective DC drives. Or take the tube drive offered below if it is the correct size and get Uncle Doug to fix it.
Of course, VFDs would have only been a dream in 1956. The variable speed motor enabled Monarch to build the lathe with no transmission in the drive train. They did have a back gear, but that was only in the drive train if you wanted the granny gear. Belt drive is quiet and produces an excellent finish.
I learned how to run a lathe on pretty much an identical machine. It was originally a 10EE with the tube rectifiers that had been converted to a modern DC drive. The electrical engineer who owned it used a modern electronic DC drive and then hacked/modified the power section so it would run at the motor's rated voltage. For him it was less about getting per-spec torque out of the thing as much as it was a humble brag whenever the mechanical engineers would show up.
We had a variac in our repair shop where I worked and it was just for testing electrical equipment, mostly trip points and such. I never heard of anyone trying to run it as a power supply.
Thank you so much for sharing Kieth. I know absolutely nothing about machining but you have a talent for explaining things that helps me understand. You would have made an excellent teacher.
I was an appentice Armature Winder in the 60's but didnt do a lot of DC. My guess why that setup pulses is I didnt see any capacitors. It would need some large ones and that setup looks potentionly lethal. Good decision to replace the speed control from scratch.
Keith, I really appreciate your down to earth approach on things. Thank you so much for sharing this little lathe with us. I do hope to see how you overcome the "contraption". Take care and be well.
Wish you had the Tubes. They were state of the art and still are in some conditions. The Big round unit with knob on top is a "Variac" (trademark) or a variable transformer. Loss of power at lower voltages is the problem. The tubes were phase adjustable - gave pulse with at max voltage different and as you increase the width of power is wider. Tiny pulse is low speed but pulses to full voltage. That variable transformer is useful for some things like lights and such but likely not that even. Light need log based windings.
Find you the biggest three phase motor that will physically fit in the machine. Preferably a 6 pole motor, these have more torque than a 4 pole. Keep the shaft from the DC motor, but remove all the armature windings, machine the three phase rotor to fit the DC motors shaft, that way you can keep the gear case and still have a back gear. You should be able to get 3600 rpm or more even with the 6 pole. I have did this on a machine that was originally a belt drive. It's still running strong and it's under a high load. I like DC motors but with today's low prices on VFD's you can't beat an AC setup if properly applied. Just something to ponder, I know that's what I would do with it. You will be far better off than keeping the old DC setup. A testament to AC motors & drives is a lathe I converted in 1997 that had a reeves drive setup that was in bad shape, the original motor was a 3HP, I put in a 5HP with a slightly lower (higher ratio) gearing and I can drill with a 2" spade bit in direct drive, in fact I had to install a torque arm on the tailstock for fear of taking out the tailstock's keyway. The Lathe has the same speed range as It did originally, I hardly ever use back gear. I'm no engineer but I have done lots of motor and drive setups for old machines, both AC & DC. Also rewired and updated a few CNC machines as well. I know you could handle the machining part of this, would make for some great episodes for the channel too!
If the motor is good then it needs a suitable converter for the DC voltage. Maybe American Rotery can make one. But you will need a transformer to adjust the voltage.
I ran one of those lathes back in the late 60's and loved it. I worked at the united airlines maintenance base at San Francisco airport and they had several of them.
You are absolutely right that keeping the DC motor will allow a wide range of speeds at full torque. Look at the Ward Leonard control, which is a fairly simple way of getting 0 to full speed forward and reverse. The Ward Leonard control system was widely used for elevators until thyristor drives became available in the 1980s, because it offered smooth speed control and consistent torque. Many Ward Leonard control systems and variations on them remain in use.
Keith Great looking lathe. I’m excited to see you’re not giving up on the round dial 10ee. I have a 1939 10ee and I’m following your rebuild on yours. Keep up the good work Jim Murphy
Plenty of info on Practical Machinist: Monarch 10EE forum, dealing with the "works in a drawer" old system and converting them. Great to have another project to follow!
What a joy it is to use these fine lathes for precision part making when they are cleaned up and looking new. We had 6 of these yrs ago, 2 with longer beds. They were replaced with newer ones in the early 80's at 80K each with all the attachments. Now you have 2 gems, lucky are you !! 😁
In a DC motor you have a shunt field, a serial field and the armature winding for a total of 6 wire. The speed variation is cause by the serial field. The serial field increase or lower the magnetic field depending of the wire connection. When the magnetic field increase, the torque increase and the speed decrease. So leave the serial field unplug (wire tag S1 and S2 ) will correct your speed variation.
It depends on the type of DC motor you have. In the case of this motor, it is a four wire motor. It is a shunt type motor though. You can control voltage and field.
A 240V Variac hooked up to an appropriately sized rectifier and a sufficient sized capacitor would give the DC motor enough voltage range to take advantage of all the power it can output. However when you rectify AC you’ll get a higher peak DC voltage because the AC Voltage is RMS (Root Mean Squared) or an Average. A full bridge Rectifier will take the AC Sine wave and transform it into a rippled DC voltage going from 0 - 169.7v (for single phase AC 120V) or 0 - 339.4v (for single phase AC 240v) so to better approximate a steady voltage a capacitor(s) can be added to “store” up the voltage and discharge it to the motor during the low points of the incoming rippled DC voltage. As you mentioned you still have the inconvenience for changing the variac dial AND you would have to set a hard stop on the Variac somewhere around the 163V to prevent from creating over 230v DC and frying the motor. All and all the I think the person who wired that had an OK train of thought but they just executed it HORRIBLY and made a train wreck of the power supply system. I’m not very familiar with Monarch lathes so all of this is solely based around there being no other systems requiring electric voltage. The ENGINEERING MINDSET on TH-cam did a fairly good explanation of how to change AC to DC that is worth watching.
It's amazing that there is always someone who tells you you're doing something wrong, but the funny thing is most of them don't have a TH-cam channel showing how it should be done. They're armchair experts, and like you said, if you get the result you needed it doesn't matter how you get there. Keep on keepin' on.
What does having a TH-cam Channel have to do regarding your knowledge on something?? that is retarded... anyone can upload..some of us don't for reasons you couldn't understand either...lol...youtube doesn't make you smart..or having a channel doesn't either....it amazes me how many times i read that... spectators are dumb... actually doing something outside in the real world matters more....
While i'm not an expert on solving his Electrical problem here..i spent decades working on Electrical devices and repairing many things personally and also as my trade ( i had many careers in my life )...what i see is funny...he knows very limited about electrical by what he is saying in this video...as such he has no knowledge of what is his options are going to be to get it working as he wants....i see this in how he deals with many things on his channel...sometimes it works..other times it is funny watching...we all have skills ...some more than others...it would be wise to listen to comments but most " Experts " with channels don't...they have viewers with more knowledge in areas than they will ever have...and should try to learn too...but that is TH-cam... viewers believing because it is on TH-cam it is fact or the " only " way to do it..and hosts who show their skills to others..some notice the mistakes..while many don't know any better...lol
Been thinking on this one. I actually "built" (partially reengineered) a high voltage DC power supply as part of my senior project when I was studying for my EET degree. It was part of a fixed frequency variable amplitude inverter for an inductive casting machine. And it did run and produce 240V The HVDC primary stage consisted of an SCR bridge (bridge rectifier with the two positive side diodes replaced with SCRs), a pair of isolation signal transformers (too high power for opticouplers) and a discreet SCR controller IC (similar to TRIAC controller in a dimmer switch). That IC was controlled by a DC input... Which for this could just be a potentiometer. If on the off chance this is of interest, I open sourced the hardware and software and would be willing to share. There were a couple issues I ran into but the overall design was previously proven.
Great post. I was going to suggest that Keith might contact electrical engineering schools as designing and building a custom control sounded like a good project. It would be interesting to see the circuit for the original controller using vaccum tubes.
From my days as a Sales Engineer selling Reliance Electric motors (among other things) I learned the 208V motors were used in areas where the supply voltage was not a solid 220-240 but dropped below 220. Usually, rural applications far from a substation, or industrial areas with a lot of loads on the system.
I might be wrong but in a DC motor drive, to maintain constant torque at all speeds, you want to maintain a constant currant and vary the voltage for rpm changes.
I am no expert either but based on what I have learned it depends on the type of DC motor you have. In the case of the shunt type like is in the 10EE, you have to vary both the voltage and the field to get max speed and torque.
A 10EE is mechanically a great lathe and as long as the electrics are working, a terrific addition to any shop. If you try to repair the electrical system however, you will soon see why often the guts are pulled out and replaced with one of the options Keith mentions. There is no simple or inexpensive way to repair the electrics back to original operational specification. These design of these lathes are a precursor to the problem with CNC machines. Mechanically, no worries. Electrically: you need to be VERY good at diagnosing a problem exactly because the proprietary repair parts (if you are lucky enough to find them) ain't cheap. 15 years ago I ran a VMC that they thought needed a board. $3,000 for one of the control boards and that was rebuilt. Turned out the board was ok, but the control panel was shot. There were no repair parts for it, rendering the machine almost useless.
VMC? What does that stand for I'm a novice when it comes to this kind of stuff. I was thinking virtual machine controller but that does not sound right. lol
Keith, To get the electric motor run better for now. Check rectifier if all diodes do function. Or get it to someone who knows rectifiers. Check carbon brushes on motor and collector/comutator. Also check variac, it has a carbon brush on de downside which can wear out or make bad contact.
I have a 10a variable transformer right now controlling the fan in my bedroom I never turn it below 60 percent as the current to the motor increases. Makes it possible to slow fans down so they are quiet. I vary the speed of my finish sanders too. That looks like a 30 or 40 amp variac probably around 500 dollars or more. I had an accident with my variac. Somebody gave me a good used jumbo jet landing light. 250w @28 volt spot light. I live about 2 miles from a big sign on a hill. I adjusted the variac to 28 volts. Put a lamp cord on the landing lamp. I had set the variac on a wall in my back yard and tried to illuminate the sign . I pulled too hard on the lamp cord and knocked the variac off the wall. I caught it by the knob and it twisted to 110% the now purple white and humming landing light swung illuminating the apartment building across the freeway for a second with a light that was brighter than sun light as the bulb burned out. A few tenants opened their windows and stuck their heads out wondering what the heck was that crazy bright flash of light. That was almost 25 years ago. I really should go over and ask if anybody had seen a crazy bright flash of light in the late 90s. That sign awaits. My variac awaits. A 12 foot hospital grade power cord awaits. I just forget to stop by the aircraft parts place to buy another crazy bright landing light bulb.
(:-)) Funny story. With all that knocking, twisting, falling and landing lights scaring the neighbors it might be a good idea to let this one rest and hope it don’t jump!
@@ellieprice363 never thought about it. Just a smile on my face to light up the sign. Had a plan for test 2. A black tube to trap stray light to the side. Making it crazy hard to see where its coming from unless you are up near the sign.. a few years later I was doing dishes. Could see huge arcing from the transmitter building to the tower. I called non emergency police dispatch. Verified the city uses that tower. Said its arcing. She said your miles from it. I can see it. Do you have a police copter near there. Yes. Within 2 minutes they were in a hard orbit shining down the midnight sun. We cant see it. I said to her turn off the midnight sun. Seconds later it went off o we can see it now. 20 minutes later I saw a vehicle racing up the access road. I never learned what went wrong. But its always wild to live here.
Keith, Another you tube guru named Steve Watkins went thru an exact same scenario with surging and goofy electronics, on his Monarch 10EE he was able to fix his successfully, maybe contacting him might help in the long run with your conundrum, 2 heads alot of times are better than 1.....just saying.....Good luck....
Love those little 10EE's. Put in many hours in front of one over the years and made countless parts on them. That is what I plan on getting when I go to buy a lathe again.
Take the motor to a reputable motor winder, tell them the HP and TQ requirements you need. Ask them to rewind and size a DC driver. It costs more, but the end result is magnitudes better than anything else.
On the account of old electronics, tubes the likes, I HIGHLY recommend getting in touch with Mr. Carlson from "Mr Carlson's Lab" (channel name) here on TH-cam. There is nobody that i know of that has a better skill set in repairing tube tech in this land. He knows just about everything there is to it and has an extensive library of videos on the subject. He breathes this kind of stuff from the smallest to the largest and i'm sure he would be willing and jumping at the opportunity of potentially working on something like that.
@@jerrypeal653 His father who he was very close to passed away suddenly and unexpectedly recently, I think he is struggling to come to terms with this happening out of the blue
@@WS-ij1fu Mr C . Is on my list of subscription. That Big old receiver( A GE if I’m not mistaken )he did like a month ago is spectacular ! I Wish him well !
Variac is a brand name that became the generic name for an autotransformer. AC power goes in one side and comes out the other at a different voltage. It's all done with wire coils and magnetic fields. It's more efficient than a rheostat or a variable resistor.
I love my 1939 10EE Sundstrand. Mine has actually been converted to a more modern Sundstrand drive. One day I will re-fabricate the setup as its not fully to my standards. IE the drive pulleys could be tighter on the shafts & better workmanship with the drive system that was converted to a later model Sundstrand.
Oneo f my dreams is to buy my OWN Browne and Sharpe 3G Automate Screw machine. So long ago (What like 40 years ago) I was trained by a expert production machinist, in the set up and operation of such a machine, I can't imagine getting much work for it :) Back in the day I turned down any jobs under 300 pieces, and 1000 plus piece jobs were preferred , Biut I still want one :)
Your discussion of the pros and cons of different drives was very helpful. I’d been wondering why my 70 year old mill had such an elaborate variable speed belt drive, and would the makers do things differently now? I’d wager no electronic drive will still be working in seventy years time, but I won’t be around to know! I might add the belts still work beautifully , though I did have to make a new intermediate shaft as the original didn’t see much lubrication in its life. Really can’t complain.
You work in two shops; maybe you should keep one of the 10EE's in your home shop and the other one out at the museum shop. I am sure you can find the right electronics set up to run the newer one!
I was convinced by the folks on the PM forum for 10EE's to keep the motor-gen set. I kind of wish this update kept those original parts in play so I could see how far a competent rebuild takes it. My machine is dated 1954. I did not rebuild the AC or DC motors nor the generators....always felt I sort of stopped short of doing it right. Being a hobbyist one has to decide how far to take it to be happy with it. I did not have the bed reground either.
There should be plenty of DC motor controllers available that will run a motor of that voltage and hp rating. Preferable to get a closed-loop controller which will give you really good low speed torque for threading and large drilling.
There is a u-tube channel called I C Welds. He makes it clear that what he shows may not be the best way or only way but it's the way he does it. I believe this to be a good philosophy. I wouldn't necessarily do things the same way but I learn a lot by watching how he does a project and you can't argue with sucess. This is the same way that I watch Keith, Adom, Clarke, and host of others.
The variac wasn't the worst idea, but it doesn't preserve the torque at lower speeds. There really isn't a better way to do that than with a solid state controller. It could be rectified from AC to DC fairly easily. I don't think the difference in voltages will be very significant, once the variable speed controller is set up.
If it's not going to be a museum piece, I would change to a small DC motor before the week is out. You can use a higher RPM motor geared down a little extra and you get excellent low-end torque. To me, nothing beat a little knob and digital tach to dial in a precise RPM.
Keith, I have a 1954 Monarch 10EE that was converted with a 5HP AC motor and VSD. I have never been able to stall it when running a very low speeds. The only difference between the way it runs now and when it had the DC dive is it is only capable of 2,000 RPMs rather than 4,000 RPMs. I haven't had the need for 4,000 RPMs so far. I look forward to seeing the drivetrain conversion you do on this lathe. Should help out lots of folks who are saving these wonderful old lathes. By the way, I got a quote from Monarch to rebuild a 10EE and install a new drive...around $60K!
If they were building brand new one they would likely be more, in reality when originally built they would have be comparably expensive new, machine tools were very expensive. Used manual machines are ridiculously cheap nowadays because industry has very little use for them, plenty of working but less desirable, older, well worn or with issues machines go to scrap because no one wants them.
Variac change voltage . The set up is a fully manual replacement for a electronic controlled voltage supply . A regulated dc supply with the current and voltage range need here is a bit pricey . That being said the control of the unit would be very precise . The service manual for the 10 EE should have the spec and the schematic for this Thyraton tube ( still able to be had used in large transmitters ) based power supply . The power supply will need to be rather robust by Solid State standards . You may need a specialty EE with a strong Vacuum tube back round.
Modern mill spindles all use AC drives that suffer from low torque at low speeds. Some but not many have a high/low gear to mitigate that. But most just over size the motor. I have a machine with a 25HP spindle that can't do what my 3HP vari-drive does on my manual DoAll mill. The Hardinge toolroom lathe uses a cone pully varidrive and a two speed motor for great performance over a wide speed range. A gear system that reduces the speed by half doubles the torque. Without a gear ratio means of getting low speed and high torque, the cut performance suffers at large diameters. You can't drive big taps or big drills either. This is why most lathes have a geared headstock. If you put a vastly over sized AC motor in your lathe you might get enough torque at low speeds. A gear box would help too. Modern motors are much smaller so a 10HP maybe larger might fit. I wonder why they put vacuum tubes in a lathe when no else was doing it and better and simpler solutions were widely understood.
You might have a look at Beel Industrial Controls. They have a complete 10EE solid state DC motor retro-fit. I think the model is D510-FWCH. I have no affiliation, just thought it looked like a good solution.
Hey Keith, I have tons of respect for you and the stuff you do.. youtube comments and forums in general are just full of folks who like to complain... You could post a link that if everyone who clicked it would get a free 1lb bar of gold... there would be a few that bitch about a scratch on theirs or it wasn't packaged right...
I agree with the other comments that the power supply is missing capacitor(s). In my opinion it really doesn't matter since that whole diy electric system needs to be removed asap. A variac/autotransformer has no business being permanently attached to commercial equipment. I am surprise that the center tap of the variac hasn't burned up yet.
I think you should consider doing a collab with a youtuber who is focused on electrics and such. I don't know a great candidate off the bat, but I bet they're out there. Maybe Jeremy Fielding? I believe he's at least sorta local (North Alabama, I think).
I'm no expert, but it might make sense to look at DIY electric car companies. Newer EV are AC motors, but there were a lot of people using things like forklift motors in cars, and a generation of motor controller came from those. EV West is a company that sells controller and parts. Might be a starting point. Good luck and looking forward to seeing you get it sorted out!
I have a 1961 10ee. When I got it someone had removed the thyratron electronic drive and replaced it with a variac. Of course it was awful. I'm an electrical engineer, which came in handy, for a change, in the shop. The drives for the 10ee were actually two variable power supplies. A big one for the armature that could go from about 20V up to 200 volts at 20 amps. The other power supply was normally 100 volts but could reduce its output to around 20 volts or so. This smaller power supply provided current for the field winding. If you started the lathe at the lowest speed, the field voltage would be 100V and the armature would be at the lowest voltage, anound 20V or so. As you increased speed, the big power supply feeding the armature increased its voltage to 200V. At this point the motor would be running about 2000RPM. The armature voltage could not be increased any more at this point to increase the speed. To increase the speed, the big power supply continued to output 200V while the little power supply started to reduce its voltage to the field. The speed of the DC motor is controlled by the motors back EMF, or voltage the motor itself is generating. When the back EMF equals the applied voltage, the motor stops drawing current and regulates itself at that speed. When the field voltage is decreased, the generator (back EMF) effect is reduced, causing the motor to run faster so that its back EMF matches the applied voltage to the armature. That's why a shunt wound DC motor can explode if it loses power to the field winding. The 10ee has all kind of safety circuits to shut the motor down if the field current drops too low, so no worries there. I built a motor control system for my 10ee and it has been working great for the last 24 years. My 10ee was geared (pulleyed) for 3000 RPM spindle speed.
Thanks for explaining how the drive did work. If I’d been better at maths I’d have covered DC motors but I switched and became a chemist.
Field weakening after armature is up to full voltage, to get higher speeds.
Haven’t heard a thyratron mentioned since my old radar days.
Dear Keith, so happy to see the lathe in your shop! Thank you for your wonderful channel. Willy
Very generous, and I reckon it'll get a lot of tlc.
You were very generous, thanks for the content this lathe will produce!
I think you made Keith's day!! Thank you sir for your generosity...im sure we will see alot of this lathe in the future. Take care and god bless!!
@@joecolanjr.8149 Thank you! I have learned so much from Keith and I am happy to help.
@@Hoaxer51 thank you! I have been following Keith for years and I am so grateful to him for his videos.
What a kind gesture by this man to give you that lathe. And how awesome it is that we all now get to watch it come back to life.
I was an electronic technician at NASA on SkyLab and Soyus keeping the Apollo Command Module simulators running. This is what we would charitably call a kludge.
Hi Keith, regarding electric motors, there is a book on the market (written by a man in the USA) “electric motor repair” Rosenberg is the author. I encouraged many apprentice armature winders to get this book as a learning aid that would help in almost any circumstance. The beauty of this book is that it isn’t written for engineering students and graduates .
I qualify this statement with over 40 years experience in the manufacture, repair and maintenance of electric motors. Great show as usual👍👍
I know that book. Excellently well put together little gem of a book. Even as someone who doesn't do this for a living, just as a hobby at best, it's easy to understand and use.
Regarding armatures and so forth, who sells the actual materials to rebuild a small armature such as the insulation paper for the slats, the electrical varnish, the shrink paper ends, the twine to tie things up together, and so forth? If anyone knows of a good supplier specifically for this I would greatly appreciate it. Hello from San Antonio, TEXAS too!
@@aserta bought my copy back in the 70's, still have it and still refer to it for theory and assembly.
@@jtg2737 I've purchased "magnet" wire with class H insulation from Temco in the past. Some of the other supplies can be harder to track down, usually because we don't know the correct "name" to search for...
@@jtg2737 There's a motor repair shop down off Rhapsody by the airport. Cant remember the name. But, they are GENIUS motor repair guys. They would probably sell you the supplies you need, or at least point you at their supplier--hope this helps.
Willy Beamis is our hero for the day! A 10EE as a gift to the Rucker Museum!!!
Thank you!
I think so too!
You’re doing it right!
Best way to do it. Is do it your way.
Thanks Keith.
I hope you are able to get those things worked our.
also the front bottom left knod is your DC field/speed control
Keith, you should get in touch with Uncle Doug, or Terry @ D-Lab,, those old tube rectifiers are way more reliable and simpler to repair. If you have the schematics they can rebuild/ repair what you have.
You could contact KB Controls in Florida. They have cost effective DC drives. Or take the tube drive offered below if it is the correct size and get Uncle Doug to fix it.
Of course, VFDs would have only been a dream in 1956. The variable speed motor enabled Monarch to build the lathe with no transmission in the drive train. They did have a back gear, but that was only in the drive train if you wanted the granny gear. Belt drive is quiet and produces an excellent finish.
I learned how to run a lathe on pretty much an identical machine. It was originally a 10EE with the tube rectifiers that had been converted to a modern DC drive. The electrical engineer who owned it used a modern electronic DC drive and then hacked/modified the power section so it would run at the motor's rated voltage. For him it was less about getting per-spec torque out of the thing as much as it was a humble brag whenever the mechanical engineers would show up.
Neat!
Those are classics. I want one of those very machines.
We had a variac in our repair shop where I worked and it was just for testing electrical equipment, mostly trip points and such. I never heard of anyone trying to run it as a power supply.
Thank you so much for sharing Kieth. I know absolutely nothing about machining but you have a talent for explaining things that helps me understand. You would have made an excellent teacher.
I was an appentice Armature Winder in the 60's but didnt do a lot of DC. My guess why that setup pulses is I didnt see any capacitors. It would need some large ones and that setup looks potentionly lethal. Good decision to replace the speed control from scratch.
Love seeing the input from folks with a background to help us understand. Thanks.
Keith, I really appreciate your down to earth approach on things. Thank you so much for sharing this little lathe with us. I do hope to see how you overcome the "contraption". Take care and be well.
That's an easy conversion you've got there if the DC motor is working fine.
Love the colour!
Enjoy whatever you do Keith and thanks for the video.
Wish you had the Tubes. They were state of the art and still are in some conditions. The Big round unit with knob on top is a "Variac" (trademark) or a variable transformer. Loss of power at lower voltages is the problem. The tubes were phase adjustable - gave pulse with at max voltage different and as you increase the width of power is wider. Tiny pulse is low speed but pulses to full voltage. That variable transformer is useful for some things like lights and such but likely not that even. Light need log based windings.
Discouraging when such an old machine tool is younger than me !!
Beautiful piece of history, looking forward to the restoration.
We had two pristine Monarch with the tube controllers. A manager sent them out as scrap metal and replaced them with a modern cheap lathe!
Lots of good info thanks for sharing
I love Keith’s channel!
Built to last I've used lathes and milling machines most of my adult life and the old machines are much better than some of the the newer ones
Find you the biggest three phase motor that will physically fit in the machine. Preferably a 6 pole motor, these have more torque than a 4 pole.
Keep the shaft from the DC motor, but remove all the armature windings, machine the three phase rotor to fit the DC motors shaft, that way you can keep
the gear case and still have a back gear. You should be able to get 3600 rpm or more even with the 6 pole. I have did this on a machine that was originally
a belt drive. It's still running strong and it's under a high load. I like DC motors but with today's low prices on VFD's you can't beat an AC setup if properly applied.
Just something to ponder, I know that's what I would do with it. You will be far better off than keeping the old DC setup.
A testament to AC motors & drives is a lathe I converted in 1997 that had a reeves drive setup that was in bad shape, the original motor was a 3HP, I put in a 5HP
with a slightly lower (higher ratio) gearing and I can drill with a 2" spade bit in direct drive, in fact I had to install a torque arm on the tailstock
for fear of taking out the tailstock's keyway. The Lathe has the same speed range as It did originally, I hardly ever use back gear.
I'm no engineer but I have done lots of motor and drive setups for old machines, both AC & DC. Also rewired and updated a few CNC machines as well.
I know you could handle the machining part of this, would make for some great episodes for the channel too!
A new toy. What a way to start August 2022.
If the motor is good then it needs a suitable converter for the DC voltage. Maybe American Rotery can make one.
But you will need a transformer to adjust the voltage.
I ran one of those lathes back in the late 60's and loved it. I worked at the united airlines maintenance base at San Francisco airport and they had several of them.
You are absolutely right that keeping the DC motor will allow a wide range of speeds at full torque.
Look at the Ward Leonard control, which is a fairly simple way of getting 0 to full speed forward and reverse. The Ward Leonard control system was widely used for elevators until thyristor drives became available in the 1980s, because it offered smooth speed control and consistent torque. Many Ward Leonard control systems and variations on them remain in use.
My British Cromwell lathe used one of the ward-Leanard systems
I never looked at DC POWER different to work with just follow and understand the difference a little to get yous to .
Keith
Great looking lathe. I’m excited to see you’re not giving up on the round dial 10ee. I have a 1939 10ee and I’m following your rebuild on yours. Keep up the good work
Jim Murphy
I also have a 39 10EE with a Sundstrand.
What a great gift!
I knew that Keith was the right person for this lathe. I’ve been watching his channel for many years.
Can't wait to see you working on it thanks!
Plenty of info on Practical Machinist: Monarch 10EE forum, dealing with the "works in a drawer" old system and converting them. Great to have another project to follow!
I'm liking that two tone blue!
Another iron to put into your fire. Thanks for the video. Jon
What a joy it is to use these fine lathes for precision part making when they are cleaned up and looking new. We had 6 of these yrs ago, 2 with longer beds. They were replaced with newer ones in the early 80's at 80K each with all the attachments. Now you have 2 gems, lucky are you !! 😁
Nice bucket list machine. Almost a perfect match, I was born one month off of this lathe of 1956. Thanks for sharing.
In a DC motor you have a shunt field, a serial field and the armature winding for a total of 6 wire. The speed variation is cause by the serial field. The serial field increase or lower the magnetic field depending of the wire connection. When the magnetic field increase, the torque increase and the speed decrease. So leave the serial field unplug (wire tag S1 and S2 ) will correct your speed variation.
It depends on the type of DC motor you have. In the case of this motor, it is a four wire motor. It is a shunt type motor though. You can control voltage and field.
A 240V Variac hooked up to an appropriately sized rectifier and a sufficient sized capacitor would give the DC motor enough voltage range to take advantage of all the power it can output. However when you rectify AC you’ll get a higher peak DC voltage because the AC Voltage is RMS (Root Mean Squared) or an Average.
A full bridge Rectifier will take the AC Sine wave and transform it into a rippled DC voltage going from 0 - 169.7v (for single phase AC 120V) or 0 - 339.4v (for single phase AC 240v) so to better approximate a steady voltage a capacitor(s) can be added to “store” up the voltage and discharge it to the motor during the low points of the incoming rippled DC voltage.
As you mentioned you still have the inconvenience for changing the variac dial AND you would have to set a hard stop on the Variac somewhere around the 163V to prevent from creating over 230v DC and frying the motor.
All and all the I think the person who wired that had an OK train of thought but they just executed it HORRIBLY and made a train wreck of the power supply system.
I’m not very familiar with Monarch lathes so all of this is solely based around there being no other systems requiring electric voltage.
The ENGINEERING MINDSET on TH-cam did a fairly good explanation of how to change AC to DC that is worth watching.
Servo drive motors with a vector drive can do it down to zero-rpm because the right ones have a seperate blower motor for cooling.
It is a variac plus a diode converter! The variac gives you variable output!
Modern VFDs can produce 100% torque at low rpm running AC motors. Look for drives with sensorless vector control that have constant output torque.
It's amazing that there is always someone who tells you you're doing something wrong, but the funny thing is most of them don't have a TH-cam channel showing how it should be done. They're armchair experts, and like you said, if you get the result you needed it doesn't matter how you get there. Keep on keepin' on.
What does having a TH-cam Channel have to do regarding your knowledge on something?? that is retarded... anyone can upload..some of us don't for reasons you couldn't understand either...lol...youtube doesn't make you smart..or having a channel doesn't either....it amazes me how many times i read that... spectators are dumb... actually doing something outside in the real world matters more....
While i'm not an expert on solving his Electrical problem here..i spent decades working on Electrical devices and repairing many things personally and also as my trade ( i had many careers in my life )...what i see is funny...he knows very limited about electrical by what he is saying in this video...as such he has no knowledge of what is his options are going to be to get it working as he wants....i see this in how he deals with many things on his channel...sometimes it works..other times it is funny watching...we all have skills ...some more than others...it would be wise to listen to comments but most " Experts " with channels don't...they have viewers with more knowledge in areas than they will ever have...and should try to learn too...but that is TH-cam... viewers believing because it is on TH-cam it is fact or the " only " way to do it..and hosts who show their skills to others..some notice the mistakes..while many don't know any better...lol
A lathe for each corner of the shop is a good rule of thumb.
Been thinking on this one. I actually "built" (partially reengineered) a high voltage DC power supply as part of my senior project when I was studying for my EET degree. It was part of a fixed frequency variable amplitude inverter for an inductive casting machine. And it did run and produce 240V
The HVDC primary stage consisted of an SCR bridge (bridge rectifier with the two positive side diodes replaced with SCRs), a pair of isolation signal transformers (too high power for opticouplers) and a discreet SCR controller IC (similar to TRIAC controller in a dimmer switch). That IC was controlled by a DC input... Which for this could just be a potentiometer.
If on the off chance this is of interest, I open sourced the hardware and software and would be willing to share. There were a couple issues I ran into but the overall design was previously proven.
Great post. I was going to suggest that Keith might contact electrical engineering schools as designing and building a custom control sounded like a good project. It would be interesting to see the circuit for the original controller using vaccum tubes.
From my days as a Sales Engineer selling Reliance Electric motors (among other things) I learned the 208V motors were used in areas where the supply voltage was not a solid 220-240 but dropped below 220. Usually, rural applications far from a substation, or industrial areas with a lot of loads on the system.
sure? 208V should be a standard voltage since it is the voltage between two phase in a 120V three phase system
I might be wrong but in a DC motor drive, to maintain constant torque at all speeds, you want to maintain a constant currant and vary the voltage for rpm changes.
I am no expert either but based on what I have learned it depends on the type of DC motor you have. In the case of the shunt type like is in the 10EE, you have to vary both the voltage and the field to get max speed and torque.
A 10EE is mechanically a great lathe and as long as the electrics are working, a terrific addition to any shop. If you try to repair the electrical system however, you will soon see why often the guts are pulled out and replaced with one of the options Keith mentions. There is no simple or inexpensive way to repair the electrics back to original operational specification. These design of these lathes are a precursor to the problem with CNC machines. Mechanically, no worries. Electrically: you need to be VERY good at diagnosing a problem exactly because the proprietary repair parts (if you are lucky enough to find them) ain't cheap. 15 years ago I ran a VMC that they thought needed a board. $3,000 for one of the control boards and that was rebuilt. Turned out the board was ok, but the control panel was shot. There were no repair parts for it, rendering the machine almost useless.
VMC? What does that stand for I'm a novice when it comes to this kind of stuff. I was thinking virtual machine controller but that does not sound right. lol
@@mousethefoo1230 Vertical Machining Center, i.e. a CNC milling machine.
Keith is a staunch monarchist.
Keith,
To get the electric motor run better for now.
Check rectifier if all diodes do function.
Or get it to someone who knows rectifiers.
Check carbon brushes on motor and collector/comutator.
Also check variac, it has a carbon brush on de downside which can wear out or make bad contact.
I have a 10a variable transformer right now controlling the fan in my bedroom I never turn it below 60 percent as the current to the motor increases. Makes it possible to slow fans down so they are quiet. I vary the speed of my finish sanders too. That looks like a 30 or 40 amp variac probably around 500 dollars or more.
I had an accident with my variac. Somebody gave me a good used jumbo jet landing light. 250w @28 volt spot light. I live about 2 miles from a big sign on a hill. I adjusted the variac to 28 volts. Put a lamp cord on the landing lamp. I had set the variac on a wall in my back yard and tried to illuminate the sign . I pulled too hard on the lamp cord and knocked the variac off the wall. I caught it by the knob and it twisted to 110% the now purple white and humming landing light swung illuminating the apartment building across the freeway for a second with a light that was brighter than sun light as the bulb burned out. A few tenants opened their windows and stuck their heads out wondering what the heck was that crazy bright flash of light. That was almost 25 years ago. I really should go over and ask if anybody had seen a crazy bright flash of light in the late 90s. That sign awaits. My variac awaits. A 12 foot hospital grade power cord awaits. I just forget to stop by the aircraft parts place to buy another crazy bright landing light bulb.
(:-)) Funny story. With all that knocking, twisting, falling and landing lights scaring the neighbors it might be a good idea to let this one rest and hope it don’t jump!
@@ellieprice363 never thought about it. Just a smile on my face to light up the sign. Had a plan for test 2. A black tube to trap stray light to the side. Making it crazy hard to see where its coming from unless you are up near the sign.. a few years later I was doing dishes. Could see huge arcing from the transmitter building to the tower. I called non emergency police dispatch. Verified the city uses that tower. Said its arcing. She said your miles from it. I can see it. Do you have a police copter near there. Yes. Within 2 minutes they were in a hard orbit shining down the midnight sun. We cant see it. I said to her turn off the midnight sun. Seconds later it went off o we can see it now. 20 minutes later I saw a vehicle racing up the access road. I never learned what went wrong. But its always wild to live here.
Keith, Another you tube guru named Steve Watkins went thru an exact same scenario with surging and goofy electronics, on his Monarch 10EE he was able to fix his successfully, maybe contacting him might help in the long run with your conundrum, 2 heads alot of times are better than 1.....just saying.....Good luck....
Love those little 10EE's. Put in many hours in front of one over the years and made countless parts on them. That is what I plan on getting when I go to buy a lathe again.
Would you say it's Artdeco in styling?
Yes, definitely Art Deco. Looks like a NYC Shrouded Hudson locomotive!
TAS Iron in Ohio rebuilds those and replaces all the electrics. You might look at their electric conversion.
Take the motor to a reputable motor winder, tell them the HP and TQ requirements you need. Ask them to rewind and size a DC driver. It costs more, but the end result is magnitudes better than anything else.
On the account of old electronics, tubes the likes, I HIGHLY recommend getting in touch with Mr. Carlson from "Mr Carlson's Lab" (channel name) here on TH-cam. There is nobody that i know of that has a better skill set in repairing tube tech in this land. He knows just about everything there is to it and has an extensive library of videos on the subject. He breathes this kind of stuff from the smallest to the largest and i'm sure he would be willing and jumping at the opportunity of potentially working on something like that.
Not a good time to contact him.
@@WS-ij1fu yea I’ve not seen anything from him for a bit , hope he’s ok !
@@jerrypeal653 His father who he was very close to passed away suddenly and unexpectedly recently, I think he is struggling to come to terms with this happening out of the blue
@@WS-ij1fu Mr C . Is on my list of subscription. That Big old receiver( A GE if I’m not mistaken )he did like a month ago is spectacular ! I Wish him well !
Hi Keith very nice Monarch lathe.
Still looking for one of those. Cant wait to see your restoration completed as well!
Variac is a brand name that became the generic name for an autotransformer.
AC power goes in one side and comes out the other at a different voltage.
It's all done with wire coils and magnetic fields.
It's more efficient than a rheostat or a variable resistor.
I love my 1939 10EE Sundstrand. Mine has actually been converted to a more modern Sundstrand drive. One day I will re-fabricate the setup as its not fully to my standards. IE the drive pulleys could be tighter on the shafts & better workmanship with the drive system that was converted to a later model Sundstrand.
Looks splendid.
I'd love to have a machine where I can say something like "I'm waiting for the thyratrons to heat up" like the old 10EE when I power it on.
I would love to see you bring it back to stock with the tubes and all. My 1957 10EE works as new.
Oneo f my dreams is to buy my OWN Browne and Sharpe 3G Automate Screw machine. So long ago (What like 40 years ago) I was trained by a expert production machinist, in the set up and operation of such a machine, I can't imagine getting much work for it :)
Back in the day I turned down any jobs under 300 pieces, and 1000 plus piece jobs were preferred , Biut I still want one :)
I have a Baldor Line Regen DC Drive on my 10EE FYI i can send pictures of the setup if it helps.
Enjoy the channel 👍🏻
l know YOU CAN DO IT....Thanks Keith.....Shoe🇺🇸
Your discussion of the pros and cons of different drives was very helpful. I’d been wondering why my 70 year old mill had such an elaborate variable speed belt drive, and would the makers do things differently now? I’d wager no electronic drive will still be working in seventy years time, but I won’t be around to know! I might add the belts still work beautifully , though I did have to make a new intermediate shaft as the original didn’t see much lubrication in its life. Really can’t complain.
Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed.👍👀
You work in two shops; maybe you should keep one of the 10EE's in your home shop and the other one out at the museum shop. I am sure you can find the right electronics set up to run the newer one!
I was convinced by the folks on the PM forum for 10EE's to keep the motor-gen set. I kind of wish this update kept those original parts in play so I could see how far a competent rebuild takes it. My machine is dated 1954. I did not rebuild the AC or DC motors nor the generators....always felt I sort of stopped short of doing it right. Being a hobbyist one has to decide how far to take it to be happy with it. I did not have the bed reground either.
Man I wish someone would give me a gift like this! I could do so much with it, extremely jealous right now.
I am truly blessed. Still blown away that Willy offered it to me!
There should be plenty of DC motor controllers available that will run a motor of that voltage and hp rating.
Preferable to get a closed-loop controller which will give you really good low speed torque for threading and large drilling.
Even custom building a more modern digital DC motor controller would be a good option in my opinion.
And I have the power to make it more accessible. I would buy a 10EE if I had the chance in the future
I would love to own one of those one day!
The viewer was very generous. Sadly high quality old lathes like this are extremely rare in Australia.
Wow!Nice present. Sounds like a challenge for the brains at American Rotary.
That’s a great idea!!
There is a u-tube channel called I C Welds. He makes it clear that what he shows may not be the best way or only way but it's the way he does it. I believe this to be a good philosophy. I wouldn't necessarily do things the same way but I learn a lot by watching how he does a project and you can't argue with sucess. This is the same way that I watch Keith, Adom, Clarke, and host of others.
The variac wasn't the worst idea, but it doesn't preserve the torque at lower speeds. There really isn't a better way to do that than with a solid state controller. It could be rectified from AC to DC fairly easily. I don't think the difference in voltages will be very significant, once the variable speed controller is set up.
I realize you have had medical problems.
.
But whatever happened to the Jimmy Diresta handsaw work, it just vanished, it was very interesting.
You might want to look into a DVR motor set up. My understanding is that you get full torque from 0 rpm up to the rated speed of the motor. Good luck.
Run a geiger counter over it. A lot of those lathes were used for shaping radioactive material for weapons production.
I doubt that more than a couple of 10EE lathes were ever used in pit production.
If it's not going to be a museum piece, I would change to a small DC motor before the week is out. You can use a higher RPM motor geared down a little extra and you get excellent low-end torque. To me, nothing beat a little knob and digital tach to dial in a precise RPM.
Keith, I have a 1954 Monarch 10EE that was converted with a 5HP AC motor and VSD. I have never been able to stall it when running a very low speeds. The only difference between the way it runs now and when it had the DC dive is it is only capable of 2,000 RPMs rather than 4,000 RPMs. I haven't had the need for 4,000 RPMs so far. I look forward to seeing the drivetrain conversion you do on this lathe. Should help out lots of folks who are saving these wonderful old lathes. By the way, I got a quote from Monarch to rebuild a 10EE and install a new drive...around $60K!
@@flat-earther Complete rebuild with paint and new drive...includes taper attachment rebuild and electronic lead screw rebuild.
If they were building brand new one they would likely be more, in reality when originally built they would have be comparably expensive new, machine tools were very expensive. Used manual machines are ridiculously cheap nowadays because industry has very little use for them, plenty of working but less desirable, older, well worn or with issues machines go to scrap because no one wants them.
They are a great looking machine very solid.
The concrete plant I once worked at used 208v three phase because there was no need for a transformer to get 110v
ABB, Siemens and Allen Bradley all make DC drives that have 230 volt as an option
Variac change voltage . The set up is a fully manual replacement for a electronic controlled voltage supply . A regulated dc supply with the current and voltage range need here is a bit pricey . That being said the control of the unit would be very precise . The service manual for the 10 EE should have the spec and the schematic for this Thyraton tube ( still able to be had used in large transmitters ) based power supply . The power supply will need to be rather robust by Solid State standards . You may need a specialty EE with a strong Vacuum tube back round.
Modern mill spindles all use AC drives that suffer from low torque at low speeds. Some but not many have a high/low gear to mitigate that. But most just over size the motor. I have a machine with a 25HP spindle that can't do what my 3HP vari-drive does on my manual DoAll mill.
The Hardinge toolroom lathe uses a cone pully varidrive and a two speed motor for great performance over a wide speed range. A gear system that reduces the speed by half doubles the torque. Without a gear ratio means of getting low speed and high torque, the cut performance suffers at large diameters. You can't drive big taps or big drills either. This is why most lathes have a geared headstock. If you put a vastly over sized AC motor in your lathe you might get enough torque at low speeds. A gear box would help too. Modern motors are much smaller so a 10HP maybe larger might fit. I wonder why they put vacuum tubes in a lathe when no else was doing it and better and simpler solutions were widely understood.
I see you have a Santa Fe Railroad conductors step next to your vertical mill
I do - it was a gift from a viewer several years ago. I love it!
You might have a look at Beel Industrial Controls. They have a complete 10EE solid state DC motor retro-fit. I think the model is D510-FWCH. I have no affiliation, just thought it looked like a good solution.
I have seen mixed reviews on that unit. Also, it is designed for the later model 5 HP DC motors and not the 3 HP motor that I have.
Hey Keith, I have tons of respect for you and the stuff you do.. youtube comments and forums in general are just full of folks who like to complain... You could post a link that if everyone who clicked it would get a free 1lb bar of gold... there would be a few that bitch about a scratch on theirs or it wasn't packaged right...
I agree with the other comments that the power supply is missing capacitor(s). In my opinion it really doesn't matter since that whole diy electric system needs to be removed asap. A variac/autotransformer has no business being permanently attached to commercial equipment. I am surprise that the center tap of the variac hasn't burned up yet.
Nice machine and a very generous viewer!
I think you should consider doing a collab with a youtuber who is focused on electrics and such. I don't know a great candidate off the bat, but I bet they're out there. Maybe Jeremy Fielding? I believe he's at least sorta local (North Alabama, I think).
I'm no expert, but it might make sense to look at DIY electric car companies. Newer EV are AC motors, but there were a lot of people using things like forklift motors in cars, and a generation of motor controller came from those. EV West is a company that sells controller and parts. Might be a starting point. Good luck and looking forward to seeing you get it sorted out!