Dave,
If theres one thing i've learned whilst doing this, that is there is hardly anything that is totally beyond all hope of repair with a little bit of courage and perhaps improvisation at times.
For when my own mill motor gave up, i didn't just dump the mill or even buy a new motor/speed controller, but fashioned an entirely new set of fixings and used my old lathe motor and VFD, that was sitting spare and not broken, i admit, when the gears broke, i made some new ones with a vertical slide on the lathe. I didn't necessarily buy my way out of the problem. There have been quite a few authors who have championed the cause of the D.I.Y workshopper, operating out of our garages, porches or even kitchen worktop, (god forbid you machine brass and cast iron on there!)
I know i could be decried by many but there are literally page loads of speed controller circuit boards you can buy on ebay, you might have to wait for china post, but if you manage to find a speed controller thats the same as yours, a £10-15 risk is definitely worth opting for, if you can fix it, yes?
I wouldn't be quick to discredit your modern import manufacture lathe, alot of myfords have been round a long time and can be quite costly to repair, the spares are eyewatering and the refits even more so. It is precisely because they were popular and have become so religiously revered that their prices have soared to frankly barmy heights. You could argue their decision to stop making machines and start supplying spares was a conspiracy to allow the ones in circulation to skyrocket and make more money from making mere spares rather than value-capped whole machines.
Michael W
Edited By Michael Walters on 23/09/2016 03:05:14