Leonard Beveler Maintenance

The Leonard beveler has been a mainstay of my rod making operation since its acquisition at the Leonard auction in the early 1980’s. Unfortunately it started acting a little balky earlier this year, and it seemed that a bad motor or a problem in the electronic control system was to blame. It turns out that even great old machinery that’s built like a battleship still needs maintenance and updating now and then!

Anyway, motors and electronic parts are hard to find for a machine north of 45 years old, but I was lucky to have finally found one that was workable, even though swapping it in wasn’t exactly a straightforward process.

Fortunately there was a “grey beard”  still working for the original manufacturer who led my electrician through the diagnostic steps (thank you!). The first issue was that since the electronic parts were already two generations old I could not find a match for an A B potentiometer although that ultimately turned out not to be the main problem.  The O.E.M. Greybeard suggested a workaround, and after some significant trials and tribulations my electrician (also, thank you!) finally put together a good solution.

It wasn’t easy but it is certainly great to have the beveler up and running again, ready for another few decades of cutting bamboo!

Marc