Lathe Servicing?

I have an Elliott Omnispeed MS 30/2500 lathe in my workshop which I'm told hasn't worked for years. We checked all the electrics and it is wired in correct and live/receiving power (the lamp and fluid pump work) but the motor does nothing. Does anyone here work on lathes/know someone who might be able to offer some help getting it back up and running?

3 Attachments

is it easy enough to just swap the motor out?

One does not just simply swap the motor out meme

Try searching/joining ukworkshop.com where you’ll find a lot of knowledge and experience of working on motors and electrics in general, but also machine tools

Thats cool. Is it 3 phase?

where is the lathe?

In their workshop, as per the first line of the first post

could it have a safety guard which turns it off when closed, but it's no longer there. Had a cursory look and some of them have it

Thanks @ljmorgan ! I've got some experience wiring in 3 phase workshop machinery but not a huge amount and feel that diagnosing whether or not the motor works is probably a bit out of my comfort zone. I'll checkout the site and see if anyone has any knowledge of this model. It sure is @Biggles567 , the whole of our workshop is also still wired up with old ceramic fuses which are a bit terrifying. Good shout @rj the only thing that makes me doubtful is that there seems to be no electrical humming coming from the lathe at all which I have come to expect from old 3 phase machines

I've only ever spent time in workshops that are at workshop sound levels so can't speak for the hum but I think that it would work the same as the emergency stop, if you press that does anything happen?

I've tried the emergency stop but nothing changes, the only switch/button that seems to do anything is if you hold the green button the tool lamp comes on

awesome, I havent really done that much with machines like that, but a mate had something similar with a reeves drive. was a right pain. I think he ended up gutting it and getting a vfd + new motor.

Good tip. At our workshop we have a smaller lathe without safety hood. In order to operate the lathe we have to use a magnet on a particular spot on the motor side that 'tricks' the safety system as if the original hood were still there in place. If you press start button without the magnet, the lathe doesn't make any noise at all and appears to have no power.

My Colchester Bantam doesn’t hum?

https://www.machinemanuals.co.uk/manual.php?p=291

Manual for sale here.

If the motor has gone it might be worth getting it rewound, Robson&Francis in SW16 are good.

It looks like that manual may hold the secret, it seems there it a lever you need to pull at the same time as the start button to start the motor, I'll give it a go tomorrow!

Awesome. This makes my little CL300M look like a kinder toy. I hope you can get her going again.

Is that a foot pedal cut-out (left side)? If so have you checked to ensure it is not actuating?