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Vacuum Pump

Dave Fritz

Dave Fritz

Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
743
Likes
212
Location
Montfort, Wisconsin
I have the vacuum system sold by JT Turnings some time ago. The pump is a 1/3 HP pump made in China and sold by Stubby Lathe according to the sticker attached to it. My problem is and has been it really runs hot. I'm reluctant to run it for too long. Is it normal for this pump to run hot? I don't think it's an oil pump, at least not that I can tell. Appreciate any feedback you can provide, esp. if you have this system.
 
Dave Fritz said:
I have the vacuum system sold by JT Turnings some time ago. The pump is a 1/3 HP pump made in China and sold by Stubby Lathe according to the sticker attached to it. My problem is and has been it really runs hot. I'm reluctant to run it for too long. Is it normal for this pump to run hot? I don't think it's an oil pump, at least not that I can tell. Appreciate any feedback you can provide, esp. if you have this system.
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I have an older Ghast pump that I bought used. It has always run hot. I used to worry about it shutting down with possibly an internal overheat switch but it never has. I've even thought about putting a fan on it but it really hasnt been a problem.
 
Dave Fritz said:
I have the vacuum system sold by JT Turnings some time ago. The pump is a 1/3 HP pump made in China and sold by Stubby Lathe according to the sticker attached to it. My problem is and has been it really runs hot. I'm reluctant to run it for too long. Is it normal for this pump to run hot? I don't think it's an oil pump, at least not that I can tell. Appreciate any feedback you can provide, esp. if you have this system.
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What do you mean by "hot"? Is it so hot that you can't touch it? Have you held a thermometer to it? Would a piece of paper or wood ignite on it?
 
Not sure about Dave's but mine gets so hot it's very uncomfortable to touch it. You can't hold your hand on it. I have not idea how old it is. I bought it at the flea mkt about 10 years ago. It looks just like the one that Oneway sells but mine is quite a bit louder.
 
Dave Fritz said:
I have the vacuum system sold by JT Turnings some time ago. The pump is a 1/3 HP pump made in China and sold by Stubby Lathe according to the sticker attached to it. My problem is and has been it really runs hot. I'm reluctant to run it for too long. Is it normal for this pump to run hot? I don't think it's an oil pump, at least not that I can tell. Appreciate any feedback you can provide, esp. if you have this system.
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If it is from China and is not ul approved. And it burns your house down, insurance will not cover you.
 
What end of the pump is getting hot, the motor end or the pump-head end? (or maybe both?) And as others have asked, how hot is it getting?

Check that the exhaust port on the pump head is not blocked or restricted.

If there is any kind of sight glass on the pump head, then it is meant to be filled with vacuum pump oil.

Does the motor housing have ventilation openings? Is there a fan in there on the end of the motor shaft? Does that turn when the pump is running? Are the fan blade and all the ventilation openings clean and free of blocking debris?
 
Dave Fritz said:
I have the vacuum system sold by JT Turnings some time ago. The pump is a 1/3 HP pump made in China and sold by Stubby Lathe according to the sticker attached to it. My problem is and has been it really runs hot. I'm reluctant to run it for too long. Is it normal for this pump to run hot? I don't think it's an oil pump, at least not that I can tell. Appreciate any feedback you can provide, esp. if you have this system.
Click to expand...
My newest pump (2003) is a Gast (G588) and I believe is rated "continuous duty". I have a 12" table fan mounted right next to the pump and it turns on when the pump is on. I don't recall if my pump ever got really hot but the fan was just a precaution, because years ago I would sometimes run my pump 3 to 5 hours without turning it off.
 
I’ve just come in from the shop after re-turning a 12” ash bowl. The last 20-30 minutes it was on the vacuum chuck so I could turn off the tenon and finish the bottom. I don’t remember ever feeling the pump immediately after using as it is mounted high on the wall, out of the way of most chips. I did feel it today and it was warm to the touch, but nowhere near what I’d call hot. It is a Thomas pump I bought used on eBay last summer. Spent its previous life as part of a goat milking apparatus. I think I’d be concerned about a pump that runs very hot.
 
Glenn Lefley said:
If it is from China and is not ul approved. And it burns your house down, insurance will not cover you.
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Really? No home insurance policy I've ever read (and I do actually read them) includes such an exclusion. Do you have first hand knowledge of such a thing happening? Fraud and arson are pretty much the only reasons I know of for non-payment.
 
Here are a couple of photos. It gets hot on the motor end, the black part anyway.
 

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Roger Wiegand said:
Really? No home insurance policy I've ever read (and I do actually read them) includes such an exclusion. Do you have first hand knowledge of such a thing happening? Fraud and arson are pretty much the only reasons I know of for non-payment.
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Friend of mine had his shop burn down from a generator he ordered from China. It did not have the safety regulations reguired for here. Insurance refused to pay. Ul required devices was in the fine print.
 
@Dave Fritz that appears to be a diaphragm pump. I wouldn't expect the diaphragm to get hot, and you say it's the motor that is getting hot. It does look like maybe one of the warning triangles in the sticker on the motor case might be a "this gets hot! don't touch" kind of warning, in which case maybe it is behaving normally.

Still might be worth checking to see if there is a cooling fan at the outboard end of the motor and if so that all is well there.

Underneath the disk thing to which the hoses connect (i.e. the diaphragm assembly), there is a silver "box" at the other end of the motor which probably contains some kind of "gear box" or ellipitcal drive that moves a shaft up and down which in turn actuates the diaphragm. You might look for a port or two (upper and lower ones?) that might be for filling that "gear box" with oil.

You could also try peeling the Stubby Lathes sticker off to see if the information hidden underneath it might provide some further insight.

Good Luck.
 
Roger Wiegand said:
Really? No home insurance policy I've ever read (and I do actually read them) includes such an exclusion. Do you have first hand knowledge of such a thing happening? Fraud and arson are pretty much the only reasons I know of for non-payment.
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He's from British Columbia, so perhaps insurance regulations are very different from here in the states.
 
Donovan Bailey said:
Lou, you made me laugh and spill some coffee here. This is just one of the many reasons that I like this forum.
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Glad I could make you laugh Donovan. Sorry about the coffee! As Forrest Gump said (or was it his mother?) “life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” Same goes for this forum. One minute you’re talking about hot vacuum pumps, the next minute you’re spilling your coffee.
 
I noticed the pump has a CE designation. Looked it up and found this:

“CE stands for Conformité Européenne, which is French for "European Conformity." A product in one of the controlled product categories cannot legally be sold in the EU unless it has passed the tests to receive the CE marking.
For a company trying to sell a product, getting a CE marking makes things much easier because it means you can sell the product anywhere in the EU. In the United States, electronic device manufacturers need to meet the same sort of requirements to get FCC approval.”

While this isn’t the same as UL, I imagine it would be a good starting point in arguing if (god forbid) your shop burns down and insurance gives you grief.
 
Thanks for that Tim. The messages were in French so when translated one said hot parts and another said noise. I guess there's fair warning. I'll look into the other things you mentioned. I don't use it often but in all cases never leave the shop untill it's cooled down and at least just warm to the touch.
 
Since it was originally sold by Stubby USA, you might try an inquiry on the Stubby forum - its a groups.io group. While Bill Rubenstein, the guy who started Stubby USA, passed away a few years ago, there are still active owners on the list and the owner of the Stubby lathe parent company - Omega Engineering I believe - monitors the group. Might be worth an inquiry directly to Omega Engineering to see what info they may have.
www.omegastubbylathes.com

Omega Stubby Lathes, Australian Made Lathes, Wood Turning Machines | Omega Tool and Engineering

Omega Tool and Engineering patented Omega Stubby Lathes are Australian made wood turning machines for precision engineering.
www.omegastubbylathes.com www.omegastubbylathes.com
 
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