Smouser
Member
- Messages
- 1,257
- Location
- Amesbury, Wiltshire, UK
I recently sold my Elliott 10M shaper which was in a good original condition and appeared to have been lightly used (came from a school) because I won a larger shaper at an auction (Invicta 4M).
I have posted some photos of the Invicta 4M before on the 'Today I acquired' thread but will include them again.
While on the hunt for some information on the Invicta 4M I came across an old auction listing for an Invicta 4M.
Surprisingly the listing was for the machine I now own, the serial number match.
The original listing was made in 2015 and the machine came from H N Harben Ltd, Aviation Engineering And Engineers in Wolverhampton.
It looks like TPH Machine Tools bought the machine at the original auction and listed it for sale.
It must have been there for years (the asking price was probably too high) as I then bought it (luckily for way less than the listing price) at the TPH Machine Tools auction when they got rid of all their second-hand machines.
During the machine's travels, it somehow lost its ram guides and the paint also suffered quite a bit in the 8 years.
Last weekend I got a chance to have a closer look at the machine.
Everything is pretty dirty and the belts have seen better days but nothing seems to be broken.
I cleaned most of the rust off on the moving parts and oiled the machine up in preparation for its 'first' run.
The motor is a 3-phase motor rated at 400v/440v but I thought I could dig the Starpoint out and wire it to DELTA to enable running the machine on a 220v single to 3-phase VFD.
However, I found that the motor was already wired in DELTA. It seems like the motor is rated for 400v/440v in DELTA and not STAR as the majority of other motors I have come across.
Luckily the chosen Chinese VFD (4.4 kW VFD Drive Inverter, AT1-04K0X) is pretty 'dumb' and no motor parameters need to be entered for it to make the motor run.
I made a quick video of the shaper running.
I have ordered three new belts to replace the very worn/rotted belts which will do for the time being. The machine will need a complete refurbishment at some point.
Some more experimentation are needed to get a better finish too (not even @RobCox 's super sharp HSS tool produced a very good finish). There is 99% chance the finish is operator error and a 1% chance that the steel is not really suitable for shaper work.
I have posted some photos of the Invicta 4M before on the 'Today I acquired' thread but will include them again.
While on the hunt for some information on the Invicta 4M I came across an old auction listing for an Invicta 4M.
Surprisingly the listing was for the machine I now own, the serial number match.
The original listing was made in 2015 and the machine came from H N Harben Ltd, Aviation Engineering And Engineers in Wolverhampton.
It looks like TPH Machine Tools bought the machine at the original auction and listed it for sale.
It must have been there for years (the asking price was probably too high) as I then bought it (luckily for way less than the listing price) at the TPH Machine Tools auction when they got rid of all their second-hand machines.
During the machine's travels, it somehow lost its ram guides and the paint also suffered quite a bit in the 8 years.
Last weekend I got a chance to have a closer look at the machine.
Everything is pretty dirty and the belts have seen better days but nothing seems to be broken.
I cleaned most of the rust off on the moving parts and oiled the machine up in preparation for its 'first' run.
The motor is a 3-phase motor rated at 400v/440v but I thought I could dig the Starpoint out and wire it to DELTA to enable running the machine on a 220v single to 3-phase VFD.
However, I found that the motor was already wired in DELTA. It seems like the motor is rated for 400v/440v in DELTA and not STAR as the majority of other motors I have come across.
Luckily the chosen Chinese VFD (4.4 kW VFD Drive Inverter, AT1-04K0X) is pretty 'dumb' and no motor parameters need to be entered for it to make the motor run.
I made a quick video of the shaper running.
I have ordered three new belts to replace the very worn/rotted belts which will do for the time being. The machine will need a complete refurbishment at some point.
Some more experimentation are needed to get a better finish too (not even @RobCox 's super sharp HSS tool produced a very good finish). There is 99% chance the finish is operator error and a 1% chance that the steel is not really suitable for shaper work.
Last edited:
