PowerPro review - the whole thing

nuhobby · Post by **nuhobby** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:02 am

Think in terms of each little 'wood whisker' and the way it bends. The pros in turning/sanding can tell a difference when they go for the nth degree in final finish.

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:23 am

Stitch wrote:I don't understand why one wants to reverse direction to sand a turning. Since I don't have that capability, do I get the same effect by walking around to the back side of the lathe?:o

If you are working with something mounted in a chuck, on a faceplate, etc., you can get the same effect of reverse with your standard headstock. Just mount the chuck on the upper auxiliary shaft on the left side of the headstock. Did it again just the other day on a little bowl I was making out of some avocado wood.

michae4716 · Post by **michae4716** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 12:47 am

I am surprised neither you nor any other members seem to find the overspeed when the unit has no load applied of no consequence. Using a sharpening disc, I want it to run at 250 rpm, and don't fancy slowing the unit down by applying one of my gouges to it.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:48 am

michae4716 wrote:I am surprised neither you nor any other members seem to find the overspeed when the unit has no load applied of no consequence. Using a sharpening disc, I want it to run at 250 rpm, and don't fancy slowing the unit down by applying one of my gouges to it.

What kind of sharpening disk? When the speed is set at 250 the fastest (I think) gets up to 350 or maybe a little faster. I'll check on this tomorrow. However, a touch of the tool to a disk should immediately slow the speed back to 250. The additional 100 or so RPM doesn't seem to be enough to worry about, but speed can be brought right back to the set speed by hand pressure (thumb and forefinger) around the axillary spindle.

However, just in case my memory is faulty, I'll test it tomorrow with a 4" leather strop.

michae4716 · Post by **michae4716** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:33 pm

Mine usually runs up to 700 rpm, and yesterday went to over 900, all the time the set speed was 250.
It takes a lot more than a touch to get it down to 250. I have a 10 inch bowl mounted, and I have to press quite hard on the outer circumference to reduce the speed.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 4:38 pm

michae4716 wrote:Mine usually runs up to 700 rpm, and yesterday went to over 900, all the time the set speed was 250.
It takes a lot more than a touch to get it down to 250. I have a 10 inch bowl mounted, and I have to press quite hard on the outer circumference to reduce the speed.

That on the surface sounds squirrelly to me!

claimdude · Post by **claimdude** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 6:52 pm

charlese wrote:What kind of sharpening disk? When the speed is set at 250 the fastest (I think) gets up to 350 or maybe a little faster. I'll check on this tomorrow. However, a touch of the tool to a disk should immediately slow the speed back to 250. The additional 100 or so RPM doesn't seem to be enough to worry about, but speed can be brought right back to the set speed by hand pressure (thumb and forefinger) around the axillary spindle.

However, just in case my memory is faulty, I'll test it tomorrow with a 4" leather strop.

I turned mine on with the saw blade attached and set it to 250rpms and it ran at 245 to 252. Checked several ther speeds up to 900 and had no over reving at all.

I did notice a slight growl at the low speeds. Is that normal? I have used mine mainly for sawing since upgrading the first of the year.

Jack

520 PowerPro and other stuff.

wa2crk · Post by **wa2crk** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 8:34 pm

I have never noticed an overspeed on my machine even when unloaded. When making some checks in the part I put the sanding disc on and set the speed to 4000 RPM. (I know that is too fast) but this was only a test. The machine started and ran past the 4000 RPM but the electronics immediately took over and put on the brakes and brought the disc down to the programmed speed I think that those who have a machine that runs at a non programmed speed should speak to Wes to see if the programming can be tweaked.
The only problem that I did have was on only one occasion when I turned the machine on and the program did not boot. Got the green on the display but no sign on and the key ped was not responsive. I spoke to Wes and he had only heard of one other symotom like this and that was an owner in Jacksonville. The condition self corrected and did not occur again. Wes seems to think that it was related to some capacitors in the control module. Only time will tell.
The only banging that I ever got was when I was using the sanding disc and some 80 grit paper. I got too aggresive with the pressure that I applied to the disc and put the system under an excessive load. I believe that the banging was caused by the system trying to compensate for RPM and torque and the banging was the result. So chalk that one up to operator error!!
Bill V

8iowa · Post by **8iowa** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 8:49 pm

Getting back to using the reverse to sand in lathe mode...........

I have a large "scoop" on a stand, the back of which attaches to my 2 1/2" DC hose. With the old headstock, when you sand, the velocity and direction of the sanding dust is exactly opposite that of the DC flow. Thus DC efficiency is greatly reduced, not to mention that you are also standing in the direction of the dust flow.

Reversing the sanding direction will now direrct the dust toward the "scoop", and away from your face as well.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 10:13 pm

charlese wrote:What kind of sharpening disk? When the speed is set at 250 the fastest (I think) gets up to 350 or maybe a little faster. I'll check on this tomorrow. However, a touch of the tool to a disk should immediately slow the speed back to 250. The additional 100 or so RPM doesn't seem to be enough to worry about, but speed can be brought right back to the set speed by hand pressure (thumb and forefinger) around the axillary spindle.

However, just in case my memory is faulty, I'll test it tomorrow with a 4" leather strop.

My short term memory is so faulty, I mounted the conical sanding disk instead of the leather strop. Turned on the PowerPro set at 250 RPM. The machine slowly sped up to 850-900. I used the conical disk with the same grit used to sharpen planer blades (150 grit) to put a new set of edges on my parting tool. when the tool was in contact with the disk - at about the mid point of the disk - the speed slowed to 250 to 300 RPM. Parting tool now has a new set of edges. During the process, the tool only heated slightly - cool enough to hold the sharp end.

Yes I need to talk to Wes to see if he can fix this over-reving. This particular PowerPro came from Shopsmith as a complete re-build. Shopsmith was made aware of this over-reving and Wes was supposed to get in touch with me, however we missed contact twice. Yes, I will keep trying to reach him.

An additional note:
The over-reving on my machine only occurs at speed below 1300 RPM. At 1500, the speed equals the setting. Today I found it takes less pressure to slow the reving down to the set speed as the set speed increases.

With a saw blade mounted and speed set at 250 RPM, if I slow the speed to 250 by pressure on the axillary spindle, there is a steady growling from the headstock. This growling does not happen is a similar scenario without the saw blade.

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PowerPro review - the whole thing

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