Son`s mini lathe Clarke CL300

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

Hi, we bought this lathe for my son to learn on and make parts for his race bike. But he wants to learn the hard way, he has broke it three times upto now ! The latest is he took the control box of to fix `number 2 I have broke it` then two wires came of in the control box, put them back in the wrong place then puff a diod or something like it has gone by bye in the mother board black soot to be found. Is this reparable or find a new one please. Thank you for your time.. P.S Why me, he breaks everything at the moment…

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

He can break it help please..

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Perhaps it might be cheaper to just leave the bike in for repair to your local shop.

Sounds like he is not really into lathe work just yet.

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Well the orange disc is a capacitor. I doubt you could damage one by reversing the connections. Have you looked at the printed circuit board , it may have blown a part of it away. If so correct the connections & solder a jumper across the blown circuit board.

Steve.

[RoParticipant @ro]

Hi Mark,

you can replace the board, although you may be shocked at the price!

something like this SHOULD work (worth checking compatability before ordering though):

**LINK**

I did this the first time my controller broke, but after it went pop for the second time, I replaced it with a generic speed controller for about 20 quid from ebay. Worked fine for about 5 years until I upgraded my lathe.

if you want to go down this route, look for "220v DC motor controller", but be warned, it's not a straight replacement, and if you want the reversing switch and emergency stop to work, you'll have to figure the wiring out.

Quite a saving though.

ro

 

Edited By Ro on 15/07/2020 20:29:27

[Anonymous]

The ref ident for the orange disc component seems to be U1, so possibly a varistor. The yellow block behind it is a capacitor. I'm not totally convinced that it's U1 that has failed. There seems to be lot of magic smoke on the connectors some way down the yellow capacitor. What does the side of U1 that faces the yellow capacitor look like?

Andrew

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

There's a chap in the USA who does repairs, he advertises on UK ebay, I'm not aware of anyone else who does and I think those old style controller boards are like hen's teeth.

Neil

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Telling us which wires you connected to the wrong place may help to identify what damage you have done. Tell us the correct places the wires should connect to and where you actually connected them. can you also post a picture of the under side of the board near the burned area.

Les.

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Just for clarification:

The link in Ro's post is to board XMT2335 – which is for C3 mini-lathe.

The picture of the board in Marks picture seems to show the board XMT2325 – link which is for C2 mini-lathe, which makes sense for a Clarke CL300M.

In any case, out of stock at ARC.

If Marks son has had zero/low guidance/ training on the lathe before being let loose on it, the probability of him breaking things are high, to include hi/lo gears, control board/s, as the chances of him overloading the machine are high.

On the one hand, depending on above, it would be wrong to get upset on Marks son, and on the other hand, there is good reason why costs of certain components are high,

Ketan at ARC.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

Thank you for all your reply`s I appreciate the time and thought you have given us.As for sending the bike to a repair shop to be fixed, that would be more costly in the long run.

Sam who is 14 races in a class called streetstock 125 with the ACU. When you are learning you fall of a lot, they say thats the way to learn ! Then his handle bar`s and foot pegs get bent and twisted some times beyond repair. These parts can be costly but for Sam to learn how to make them and may be sell a few at race meetings would be more cost affecting in the long run, plus this experience will be good to add to his skill set.

If you look at the photos I have uploaded today you can see the Orange varistor U1 as Andrew kindly mention, the orange disk looks to have failed, the rest of the board both sides looks like new.

I was given a price from Clarke yesterday of £ 165.08 plus postage. Thank you Ro for your link a touch cheaper.

As for which wires Sam got mixed up he has said they were the ones going to the emergency stop button the on and off.

My first thoughts after reading the original thread yesterday was to make this lathe some what more bomb proof, by upgrading the motor etc, so the lathe could cope with heavier work and last longer. If that cost a little more than a new circuit board in the long run it would be more cost effective ? Thank you all again for your time we a very green behind the ears but hopefully going in the right direction.

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

Posted by Barrie Lever on 16/07/2020 13:59:19:

Posted by Mark Cookson on 15/07/2020 13:28:40:

Hi, we bought this lathe for my son to learn on and make parts for his race bike. But he wants to learn the hard way, he has broke it three times upto now ! The latest is he took the control box of to fix `number 2 I have broke it` then two wires came of in the control box, put them back in the wrong place then puff a diod or something like it has gone by bye in the mother board black soot to be found. Is this reparable or find a new one please. Thank you for your time.. P.S Why me, he breaks everything at the moment…

Mark

No better way to learn than to get stuck in, I admire him for at least trying.

I cannot even begin to start telling you how much equipment I broke when I was young but I learned.

Hats off to your son and I hope he can get the lathe going again.

Regards

Barrie

Hi Barrie, thank you for your kind words, they will mean a lot to Sam and to me, I want Sam has have chances in life, he wants to go down this road of making his own parts not just for his bike , he has made a new mechanism to closed his bedroom door nothing fancy but he has done it, he has fixed this in class for the teacher before now. Sam wants to do the TT in the Isle of Man and be a engineer . So thats him sorted, he has a job on a Saturday learning how to rub down and respray cars wagons etc comes in handy when he scratches his bike on the race track. I want Sam to learn from the bottom up, he jsut wants to run some times it is hard to keep the reigns pulled back haha.. Thank you again..

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Seeing as Barrie has mentioned it – 1% – 1.5% of TT competitors die due to crashes (high % of these are first time riders), a similar number have life changing injuries – however even those less injured and recover often come back to race again.

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

Thanks Barrie for your reply and thank you Frances for the statistics, Sam`s Grandad and grandma live in Onchan they are marshalls at sign post corner. Sam hopefully one day will make his mind up the race tracks are safer but he is stubborn when he gets a idea in his had if you know what I mean.. Any how I hope we receive some more valuable information as to getting this lathe up and running again at so it may last a lot longer than last time !

[Mark CooksonParticipant @markcookson36121]

P.S for got to say the photo is of Sam at Three Sisters last Saturday on a ACU test day..

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Am I correct that when you say " mixed up he has said they were the ones going to the emergency stop button the on and off." that you mean that he connected the output of the on/off switch to terminals K3 and K4 and that he connected the wires from the emergency stop switch to terminals L1 and L2. If so I don't see that this would cause the varistor to fail but it almost certainly would have damaged other components as he connected the mains to the low voltage part of the board. The varistor is probably connected directly across the mains input to the board (terminals L1 and L2) so I think this just failed or failed due to a high voltage transient on the mains.

Les.

[Bruce NewmanParticipant @brucenewman56212]

Found this diagram which looks about right.

**LINK**

I assume the lathe has a dc motor, I can only assume that the AC mains has been connected to the DC motor output which may have damaged the dc motor drive output components which in turn may damaged the control ic's.

Why the varistor has blown is a mystery as they only normally blow due to external high voltage spikes such has lightning strikes, the varistor is not required for normal operation of the lathe but is there for mains suppression purposes along with most of the components in that area of board. I assume that the fuse has been checked.

Bruce

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

This is a link to the manual for the CL300M which contains a wiring diagram but not a schematic of the board. (Which I have not been able to find.)

Les.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 15/07/2020 20:37:47:

The ref ident for the orange disc component seems to be U1, so possibly a varistor. The yellow block behind it is a capacitor. I'm not totally convinced that it's U1 that has failed. There seems to be lot of magic smoke on the connectors some way down the yellow capacitor. What does the side of U1 that faces the yellow capacitor look like?

Andrew

I agree. Although there's a lot of smoke damage, it may not be related to the components at all. My guess is the two wires that came off were Live and Neutral and the lad reconnected them the wrong way round. Reversing L & N let something like 100A flow for several milliseconds, or it might have arced before blowing a fuse. Either way damage to the board is likely – vaporised tracks & overheated plastic insulation in the terminal strip etc, but not necessarily to components.

It's just possible the damage is only cosmetic. Correcting the wiring, fixing the fuse and trying again would soon prove that. But first I'd look carefully at both sides of the board – photos would be good – despite appearances it may be a simple fix. Or it could be obviously catastrophic!

Have to say I'd probably buy a replacement board. Although I have the gear necessary to trace and fix electronic faults, it's often a false economy. Time and effort, risk of getting it wrong, and maybe several components to be replaced at retail prices. Quite often quicker and cheaper to replace boards rather than fix them.

Dave

 

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 17/07/2020 10:01:07

[Anonymous]

Looking at the additional photos it certainly looks like it's the varistor that has let out the magic smoke. Alhough I'd agree with Bruce that it's a bit odd as MOVs are pretty robust unless a large spike exceeds the energy rating.

While any board is repairable, in theory, not having a circuit diagram makes life an order of magnitude harder. If mains AC has been applied to the DC side then I suspect that many, if not most, components will be fudged.

It'll certainly be quicker, if not cheaper, to buy a replacement board; unless someone can be found to repair it for love rather than money.

Andrew

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