Trevor,
Yes, you can switch the motor / chuck.
However, you may have an issue.
The AC/DC universal motor on the alps chuck can not be easily reversed.
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I am also left handed and have always built all of my power wrappers.
I use a thread holder that is behind the rod and the thread comes over the top of the rod toward me and I really would not be able to wrap any other way.
But, to do that I need to have the top of the rod rotating toward me.i It doesn't really matter if the chuck is on the left side or the right side. But, if you have the thread coming from a certain direction and want to keep it that way- when you move the motor and chuck from one side of the wrapper to the other side - the motor direction has to be reversed.
And like you, I have always had my motor and chuck on the right side of me and I always have the top of the rod rotating toward me. So, if you look at the face of the chuck, I have the chuck rotating in a clock wise direction.
But, if I have my motor and chuck on the left side of myself, and I look at the face of the chuck, I want the chuck to rotate in a counter clockwise direction.
For the last many years, I have used only DC low voltage gear motors to drive my power wrappers. To reverse a DC motor, one simply reverses the plus and minus power leads to the motor and the motor direction switches. This is easily completed with a cross wired DPDT switch.
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Just to illustrate some examples:
Here is an alps chuck with a DC motor, control box and appropriate pedal to control the motor:
[
www.rodbuilding.org]
Here is an alps chuck with a small DC gear motor placed under the head stock shaft, along with a control box and foot pedal to control the speed.
[
www.rodbuilding.org]
Here is a modified Alps chuck that is being driven by a small DC gear motor and the power is coupled from the motor to the Chuck with a pair of XL cogged pulleys and an Xl cogged belt.
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However, just a note: All of these motors are low rpm small dc gear motors that do a wonderful job of wrapping and drying if one wishes. But, the size, power and speed of the motors are such that they will not power a power wrapper to use for grip shaping or turning. One needs to use a separate lathe for that if one wants to turn grips.
You can do the research and make the changes yourself.
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This is the very simple head stock and motor with a keyless industrial chuck, shank and a Taig lathe chuck that I have used for the last many years for building my own rods and it has performed well for these past years.
[
www.rodbuilding.org]
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I normally use my wood lathe in a separate building to turn grips and it works very well. But now and then, a client wants just a small amount of change made to their grips. For this job, I use a former 24v rechargeable drill motor, gear train, and chuck from a scrapped out drill.
[
www.rodbuilding.org]
I just remove my small head stock and mount the drill motor. I use the same heavy duty power supply that I use for my rod building along with the same pedal. This has all of the same speed and power as an electric drill. I will also use the same shank, and taig chuck with this head stock as the one that I use for power wrapping.
These are all very simple and straight forward, but they have all worked perfectly for these last many years.
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So, if you want to move the head stock and motor to the right side of your head stock if you wish. But, the reversing of the motor that comes with the lathe is going to be a problem.
However, there is a solution to your head stock chuck reversing problem by doing nothing to the motor direction itself.
But, you simply reverse the position of the motor.
For example, if you used your motor and then put it under the head stock as shown in this listing of the CRB wrapper head stock the head stock would be rotating in the opposite direction compared to your current Alps setup:
[
www.mudhole.com]
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Or you could fabricate a separate mount for your motor and mount it behind the head stock with a belt of the appropriate length to connect to the chuck and you would have the head stock reversing in the opposite direction.
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The problem with the stock AC/DC universal motors used on the ALPS and other similar wrappers have a specific angular brush placement with respect to the armature windings.
So, normally to reverse these motors, the optimum of the brushes need to be moved to work properly.
AC/DC corded drills use a slightly different technology to be able to get similar power from their drills, no matter the direction of rotation.
But, the big issue with using a drill motor for power wrapping is NOISE. The gear reduction is all of the corded, as well as rechargeable DC drills have a significant amount of gear noise that is very very irritating amount of noise when peacefully spending hours wrapping rods.
Best wishes.
Summary, if you want to put the head stock on the right, you can do it. But you may have an issue with rod rotation direction. So, check before you switch.
Good luck
