Well, heres a progress report on the motor upgrade on the Grizzly G5979
Lathe:

I bolted a piece of heavy unistrut to the lower half of the headstock where
the casting was heavier. I used a sliding/tilting motor mount that I had
laying around bolted between the unistrut and motor. I had a piece of 1/2"
power-twist belt that was long enough, but it is too wide to get the full
range of the Reeves driven pulley.

I rewired the switch and motor using heavier guage wire and added a heavy
toggle switch to reverse the rotation.

After a few test runs, it seems to work pretty well. There is ample power,
and the reverse works nicely. There is still room for improvement in the
mechanics of the setup.

I have a 3/8 power-twist belt arriving today. Also arriving today will be a
shaft coupling, keyed shafting and a shaft collar to extend the motor shaft
to accept the Reeves driver pulley. I feel this would be a better setup then
a step pulley and having to shift and tilt the motor everytime I need to
change the speed range. The motor mount can then be mounted rigid. I may
need to add a bearing on the end of the shaft for stability. I will have to
modify or make a belt guard to fit the new arrangement.

So far it has been a trying project. On several occaisions I nearly chucked
the who thing and put the old motor back on.

Last weekend I went to a Woodcraft store and saw the Nova DVR and a couple
of Delta lathes that look good too. Time to start saving my money. Even if
the lathe modification is a success, I will have to get me one of those
high-priced, new fangled machines in the near future!

Is it just me, or does Woodcraft have higher prices on their tools then
Rockler and Craft Supplies? Their turning tools seemed quite a bit higher
then I am use to paying. I did pick up some bowl blanks that were very
reasonable.

Thanks for all your help and comments.

Ms. Leslie Gossett




"Walt & Jenne Ahlgrim" wrote in message
...
Don't worry about DVR bearings there are 3 large sealed bearings,
2 in front 1 in the back

http://www.teknatool.com/products/La...ova%20_DVR.htm

a quote from the site above

"The motor is solid and heavily constructed, because it forms part of
the headstock. The bearing structure is a specially developed TRIMAX
TM bearing configuration, which provides a heavy-duty spindle."




On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 20:34:25 GMT, "Leslie Gossett"
wrote:

Well, heres the deal...

I see the advantages of running in reverse for sanding and hollowing.
Power
sanding doesnt seem to be quite enough. I still find myself stopping the
lathe to hand sand in the reverse direction. For scraping, I see a
definate
lack of power. But otherwise with gouges, skews, etc, there seems to be
no
problem.

I dug up a new 3/4 hp, 56C, capacitor start, Leeson motor that was
sitting
around doing nothing. I have managed to bolt it to the side of the
headstock. Tonight, armed with a step pulley and a few belts, I am going
to
attempt to make this sucker work.
If it doesn't work out, so be it. I will start saving for a new lathe. I
do
like the Nova DVR, or possibly others.
One thing I was wondering about the DVR is how it holds up to roughing
larger, square stock? One would think it might be hard on the motor
bearings, being direct drive. How has Nova overcome this?

Thanks for all your help

Leslie




"billh" wrote in message
...

"Leslie Gossett" wrote in message
.net...
About 6 months ago I purchased a very slightly used grizzly 12" x 36"
G5979
lathe. Its a decent machine. But it is lacking power (1/2 hp) and
can't
run
in reverse. The long motor shaft, and the way it is mounted makes it
almost
impossible to upgrade without some major mods to the headstock. The
way
the
motor is mounted also limits the swing when using a shallow face
plate
with
stock over 8" diameter. If it weren't for the motor, I would have
nothing
to
complain about.

Alas, I find myself searching for alternatives. The easiest but most
expensive one is to buy a new lathe. It needs be one more geared to
turning
bowls. One with a swing over bed of at least 14". It needs to have a
swivel
headstock for outboard turning of larger bowls. Variable speed,
reversing
and at least 1 hp motor. There are many lathes out there that will
suit
me
quite well. Finding one is no problem. Affording it is a matter of
saving
my
money and staying out of Rockler for a while.
Weight and size is a is a real problem. It has to be brought down a
very
narrow stairway with a sharp 90 degree turn into the basement. It
will
have
to be done in many pieces. OK, I can deal with that, I guess. I don't
want
a
monster machine that will create a major project every time I have to
move
it either across the floor or to another home.

Getting a new lathe really isnt that much of a problem. It really
bothers
me
that I can't find a way to upgrade my Grizzly to a better motor. I
have
written to Grizzly about my delima, and their response was rather
negative:
"There is nothing you can do to upgrade the G5979". So I ask all of
you
that
are familiar with this lathe and all of the others that are identical
to
it.
Do you agree with Grizzly's response? Do you know of any way to
retrofit
a
slightly larger motor, that can be reversed?
Either AC, or DC. I know some single phase AC motors can run in
reverse.
DC
is a no brainer. Any ideas out there? Has anyone modified this lathe
before?

Ideas are appreciated

Thanks in advanced

Leslie Gossett





I went through the same dilema with a lathe similar to your Grizzly. I
bought a bigger motor and mounted it differently and used a system of
step
pulleys to set the speed. I also wanted to get a lower minimum speed
for
bigger blanks. To make a long story short, the system was cumbersome
but I
did have a lower speed and more power. Then the other shortcomings of
the
lathe became apparent; it just wasn't made for bigger stuff. So I
wasted
time and money which I should have put towards a better lathe in all
respects in the first place. I bought a big General variable-speed.

Why are you so keen on being able to reverse the rotation?

Billh