Motor is up and running!

Last night I installed my new motor. I was quite excited to get it up and running so I was going fast and made a few mistakes. First I forgot to run the wires through the acess holes of the motor and the switch so I had to disconnect everything and redo it. Then I wired it for clockwise rotation only to find out I needed counter clockwise. After about an hour I had it fired up and made some curlies fly! It has lots of torque so my dreams of turning side tables out of logs and large sculpture pieces should be a reality very soon. Below is a pic of the motor fresh out of the box on my bench.

New Motor, More Power!

The garage sale find $5, 1/4HP motor that I have been abusing on my lathe for the past few months has finally bit the dust....or smoked out to be honest. The timing of the motor stopping isn't that bad though. My family will be traveling back to KS this holiday weekend and a traveling through Lincoln, NE. The Burden Surplus Center is just off the highway and they have a great looking 3/4HP TECF 1750RPM motor for just under $120. My "made money" from the government's generous stimulus check will just about cover it. I hope my contribution to stimulating the economy will serve me well....more to follow once it's back in the shop and on the lathe. Below is a pic of it as well.