One of the things I salvaged from the farm was an old Delco electric
motor - Model A8280CC. This is an oooold motor - it's got oil caps to
oil the shaft bearings - sleeve bearings, I'm sure.

So I'm planning on aquiring a Beal Buffing System sometime in the not
too distant future and I was digging around in my box of old electric
motors and came on this one. 1/3 hp, 1750 rpm, just what the doctor
ordered. When I wiped of the plate, there was a note stamped on it -
to referse the direction of the motor, switch the red leads. Oh my!
Now I'm seeing a buffing/honing system!

I took the plate off the connection point and there were four posts
sitting there. Hmmm. The only current the the farm was straight 120,
never anything fancy like 3-phase or anything, so I'm puzzled - where
do two hot wires go, that can be reversed? Google the model number,
nothing.

So I hauled it down to a local electric motor repair shop and asked
them if they could tell me how to wire it up. The fellow poked around
for a minute, wiped some crud off the interior, and showed me the two
red wires in there that were to be switched. He said to just put the
common and power leads across the two top posts, didn't matter which
way.

I hooked up a power cord and slowly inserted the plug - sizzle crack!
The circuit breaker did it's job. Ok, maybe it does make a difference
which way it's wired - switched the wires, plugged it in, no sizzle
crack, but the circuit breaker opened.

I have another motor, 3/4 horse power farm duty motor I could use, but
I don't think it can be reversed. I'm going to take the Delco back and
see how much they'd charge to work on it. See if they have a
reversible motor for less money. I could tear the Delco down, but I
wouldn't know what to look for.

JW