WP Davis Machine Co. - Rochester, NY
Vintage line-drive METALWORKING LATHE

MOTOR / MOUNT UPGRADE

The WP's motor mount setup worked. But it was just way too far off the back and taking up space. - Along with not holding tension on it's V-belt causing the chuck to lag extremely. Thus it was time for an UPDATE

This was it's original setup way off the back side...

Let's see about making a whole new mount from scratch... Grab some scraps of steel over there will ya?

First thing needed for the WP's upgrade is a new shaft for the dual pulley drive with the smaller 1/2" ID. - Since our current setup works lets make it on the lathe then take off the old drive setup and go from there...

Since the bearings are 1" ID only the new dual-pulley end needed to be machined down to 1/2" for it to work...

Angle shot... The two steel bars sticking up are what tensioned the drive belt by pushing the whole assembly and the motor towards the back... They are what it being re-designed as more of an over-head setup to gain some tension lock and room off the back side...

Also what came along for FREE was a spring loaded motor mount plate the rubber pivot points for it and four V-belts...

With all of it's original drive system removed the first attempt at making a new tensioning pulley mount was to lay the 1"x 2" steel C-channel out flat...

Problem is at the left end when layed flat it covers the lever for the rear gears...
Sure we could extend the shaft that the lever is on, But drilling 4 more holes wont kill anyone either...

So instead they were re-drilled to fit in the upright position and another scrap was welded on the end after being notched to fit. Also mounted was the new lever that will hold the tension on the drive belt and allow you to loosen it for speed changes... DOWN its at 5-1/2" inches to what will be the top plate... (belt loosened)

and UP it's at 7" inches to what will be the top plate (belt tightened) - an extension plate will be added to the top mount later on to insure it's fully connected strong using all four bolts and possibly one off the front so the top and bottom area's are the same sizes...

Found this lever at the Junkyard... Here it is again in the UP position...

1-1/2" inches of travel to tension the new future pulley setup seen laying on the left... - I found this lever thing in the Junkyard mounted on a trucks bed. It was pushing a pulley to tension a V-belt in a little different setup. Now it will be pushing the whole motor/pulley assembly UP instead...

Other side...

DOWN at 5-1/2" inches
From the front you can see that the lever's mounting points will be dead-center with the pulleys they are tensioning...

UP at 7" inches

Progress continues... ( a day later...)

The motor mount plate was connected via two strips of yet more C-channel across the back and a few holes drilled...

Further back you see the new dual-pulley setup for the main drive... and two (red/silver) clamps holding the rubber mounts for the hinged motor plate. (weight of the motor keeping it tensioned at the moment)

Corner shot...

Rubber hinged mounting plate connected at the back with some horizontal C-channel added and 4 holes with 4 clamps holding it as I check for positioning...

Hanging together with only two welds at the back... (and the 4 clamps)

Pivot point is there in the top right corner.. But not hinged yet... The motor is also not the correct one but it makes for a good dummy at this point with no wires on it... - This shot makes it look BIG - But the other setup had them all in a row making it extremely long... ALL GONE NOW !

Other side closer...

Clamps on this side...

Further back...

Looking good so far !

Progress continues... ( another day later...)

A few things have changed:
In order to stop the black belt from rubbing it's new upper deck the bearing block's were moved back 1" inch via four new holes...
The original motor was mounted up with the new plate and dual pulley put on it backwards to align because of its smaller size...
and the two lower rear bars of steel across the back for the rubber pivot mounts were welded permanently...

The upper deck is still not hinged at the back and only sits on top of the rear uprights...
Nor is the motor plate spring-loaded to tension the dual belt's yet...

From above...

The welds at the back for the motor mount plate and it's rubbers grabbing whatever I could connect...

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