Motor-to-Gearbox Shaft Adapter
Here is the shaft-adapter in cross-section:
Motor-to-gearbox shaft adapter
I needed a lathe to do the finishing work on the shaft adapter. I was
contemplating this problem when I noticed a big lathe sitting nearby, along
with a motor and VFD. With a 2x12, wooden wedges, some carriage bolts and a
taper-lock sleeve for a pulley in my junk box, I had the EE running with the
new motor mounted outside the lathe:
Temporary direct spindle drive
Below are some pictures during fabrication. The female part is bored with a
step so the male part slips into it and has the keyway broached. The male part
is slotted. The two parts are welded together and all the finish turning and
boring is referenced to the TGP surface of the male part.
Slotting a piece of TGP shaft
Shaft adapter after welding
Final boring of shaft adapter
Here are two views of the the finished part. The key is rectangular and is
held captive by the set-screws in the female part. Note the polished shoulder
for an oil seal and the step at the end of the male shaft for checking alignment
with the gearbox output gear bore.
The bore was a tight fit on the motor shaft, but I still ended up putting two
more pairs of set-screws at 120 and 240 degrees from the key to get rid of
0.002" of runout caused by the original two set-screws deflecting the shaft
away from center. With these installed and tweaked, there was negligible
runout on the male shaft.
Here is how I aligned the adapter on the motor shaft:
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