Shopsmith Forums

Having spent the better part of an hour in a fruitless search to find what I need to know, I now humbly turn to the experts on this forum. BTW, this has little to nothing to do with SS.

I have a Carba-tec mini-lathe. I've had it for 15 or 20 years. I love it for small turnings. It has a 1/4 HP A. O. Smith 325P547 Series 2A93 Type S motor. The nameplate has a wiring diagram to reverse it (for whatever reason one might want to do such.) It has a 4-step pulley mounted to it, matching the 4-step pulley on the lathe.

I also have laying around several speed controllers, originally designed for small commercial fans.

I like the idea of a variable speed lathe. I don't like the price. Besides, mine works just fine. So, I'm wanting to put the speed controller on this motor, mount the dial conveniently, and be able to dial 'er up as I go from roughing out to finish cuts to sanding and finishing.

My problem is that I know not every motor is compatible with speed controllers. My question is how do I tell if this motor is an induction motor, universal motor, or whatever??

I'd really hate to just hope for the best, hook it all up, and fry a perfectly good little motor.

AO Smith sold out years ago. You can still buy AO Smith motors, but the company that bought them, Regal-Beloit, doesn't have info on their massive website. Wikipedia didn't offer much help. About all I learned is that I can find this exact same motor on ebay for $40. Not that such information is either relevant or helpful in this case.

Anyone?????

After looking at the label on one of those motors like yours being sold on e-bay, it's an AC induction motor that is not compatible with a speed controller.

You could check with Penn State Industries as they used to sell the Carba-Tec lathe and may still have some parts to convert yours to a variable speed model. They sell a conversion kit (motor and controller) for converting the Delta or Jet lathes to variable speed and perhaps that would work on the Carba-Tec, but it may be too large to fit under the Carba-Tec.

No brushes = do not use controller.