Who's done a remote-mount with their lathe electrical box?

[Fear]

I just scores a Sharp 1660C lathe in pretty damn good shape. I'm planning on setting it against the wall in my shop. My problem is, like most lathes, the electrical box is on the back. I just know I'm going to have to get into it at some point, so I figured I would remote-mount it on the wall next to the lathe. I pulled the box off and it looks easy enough. Just fab up an extension harness, fab a block-off plate for the recess in the back of the lathe, fab wall brackets for the box and tie it together with flexible conduit.

I'm just wondering why I don't see this done regularly in all the pictures of lathes pushed up against walls.

[NotHardly]

How are you going to handle chip extraction with the lathe against the wall? Looks like it is designed to evacuate chips from the rear.

[Fear]

Plenty of access on the front as well.

[RB211]

Why not just keep the lathe 2ft from the back of the wall? I find having access 360 degrees around a tool to be a good thing.

[1/2 dun shed]

Plenty of access on the front as well.

I have a 1440 up against the wall in the corner of my shed. Like yours its made for chip removal at the rear.
I have to clean it out all the time. Let it go to long and all those long curly bits form a very hard lump to try and pull out through the front even though it likes like a large gap.
I have let it go to long sometimes doing jobs back to back. Pair of wire cutters and nearly an hour and the tray was clean. Then you have to try and get all the other swarf that has fallen down behind it.




Where is the coolant pump? Mines rear left had to pull the lathe out to repair it.
If you can do yourself a favour and leave it out from the wall.
I did mount a separate main switch near the lathe but with all the junk around it its easer to go and switch off the main breaker.

Tony

[flathead4]

Those chips you brought home with it should be a clue.

[polaraligned]

I have had my Victor 1660 against a wall for the last 12 years. I had to pull it out once, and a pallet jack made easy work of that.

[BCRider]

Looking at the first picture I'm rather thinking that mounting your machine up snug to a wall is not a good idea. The chip tray is clearly strongly intended to be cleaned from the rear. Although the chips glued to the back of the head above the electrical opening suggests that someone had the machine against the wall or there was a fairly tightly fitted back guard.

This may be a time where it is worth giving it a bit of space or have the back of the machine facing an open area.

[Fear]

The center of my shop is where I have to pull vehicles through. It has to sit about 7" away from the wall to clear the crossed and backsplash. That 7", along with end access is enough room to change or access the motor. There's no access to the pump from the rear, I'll have to look it over to see where the pump is accessed. The chips "glued" on the back is where they wedged down between the electrical box and the lathe. 2 of the 4 screws that held the box in-place were already sheared-off so the box was likely about to come off anyway. The place I got it from had it in the middle of the shop. He claimed he got it from a warehouse it sat in ever since being pulled from duty at a Bosch factory that closed down where it was likely in 360deg-open as well. It was a long drive there and a long drive back. cleaning out the chip tray wasn't a priority for me.

[Franz©]

I'm 87.9634% sure the National Electric Code requires all electricals on any machine tool to be as inconvenient as possible for a person to work on.

[RB211]

Well, that's your problem, your polluting your workshop with a car!

[BCRider]

If you are already going to give it 7" of clearance are you sure you can't spare an extra 18"? That's all it would take to allow you cramped but workable room at the back to clear the chips. Or even if it were sat at an angle to the wall with the tail of the bed out by about 26" to allow the same? A Roulette style croupier's hook would serve for herding the chips to the wider end of the opening for clearing away.

[1/2 dun shed]

I suppose the question is how much will it be working?
If every day you`ll soon have it out from the wall. Once a month and it will not be much of a problem.

[Fear]

Well, I'm happy with how it's coming along. The machinery movers show up Wednesday to get the lathe off of my trailer and down onto skates. I then get to set it in-place, mark for holes, move the lathe and set some RedHeads in the concrete, set it down, loose-fit the bolts, level her out and then snug her down. After that I will hopefully have an actual Bridgeport Series 1 sitting next to her and I can focus on wiring my RPC through a 3phase panel and then to cutoffs and then the equipment. The mill I'm looking at needs some love and the lathe could use tooling, but one step at a time. I don't even want to look at VFDs and DROs until I've made some chips.

[wierdscience]

I like that idea of putting clear shrink tubing over the wire labels. I've bought peel and stick wire tags for years, but never was too happy with them, plus they are pretty limited in character selection.