Woodworking Project Kitchen and Bar Area

[Brian Ski]

Anyone with a small shop can save a lot of money buying the 3 phase equipment and running it on a dedicated 3 phase converter and breaker panel for a fraction of the cost of comparable single phase machines. Drill presses, lathes, and milling machines bring a lot less money at auctions if they are 3 phase power instead of single.

You are sure right about that... Interesting story... I built a phase converter probably about 10 years ago... I used it on a tire balancer. It would spin the tire and when it would slow the tire down it would slow down and then speed back up. Never stopping??? Hmmm... The motor on the phase converter would slow down and reverse. I picked up a larger motor for the phase converter and everything was fine. Nobody can use 3 phase unless they have a shop wired for it, so the machines are usually a very good bargain if you want to dig into a phase converter.

[cbmkr]

You are sure right about that... Interesting story... I built a phase converter probably about 10 years ago... I used it on a tire balancer. It would spin the tire and when it would slow the tire down it would slow down and then speed back up. Never stopping??? Hmmm... The motor on the phase converter would slow down and reverse. I picked up a larger motor for the phase converter and everything was fine. Nobody can use 3 phase unless they have a shop wired for it, so the machines are usually a very good bargain if you want to dig into a phase converter.

The hmmmm and reverse is from one of the three legs of power being down, the motor could have been bad, Little thought if you wire a 3 phase motor to single power , put a pulley on it like and ol time rope start mower that you hand winded, If you energize that motor with power and pull the rope it will start and run, when it runs it will generate power to the 3 leg of the motor probably about 170-185 volts.

If anyone is interested i can post a drawing for a converter we build to just run on a single machine. I am not any kind of electrical engineer but have made a lot of these and learned this doing service and repair in our plant years ago.

PS: One little note of thought most single phase motors have capacitors on them 3 Phase do not, the capacitor on a single phase motor starts that 3 leg of power that is in the motor.

[Brian Ski]

The hmmmm and reverse is from one of the three legs of power being down, the motor could have been bad, Little thought if you wire a 3 phase motor to single power , put a pulley on it like and ol time rope start mower that you hand winded, If you energize that motor with power and pull the rope it will start and run, when it runs it will generate power to the 3 leg of the motor probably about 170-185 volts.

Well the Hmmm was me thinking... Hmmmm.... The Balancer would reverse the phases to get it so slow down. Problem was the motor did not have enough inertia to stop the wheel before back spinning it... I either needed a bigger motor or a flywheel on it... I went with a bigger motor...

BTW I went with a motor starter circuit with a capacitor start and run to jump the motor... Been working great for a long time. I guess they say the more motors/equipment on the 3 phase line the more stable your 3 phase power will be.