Harrison T300 & Newby to the site.

[Fred Moore]

Hi all.

Stumbled accross this site while looking for ways to power my newly aquired Harrison T300 Lathe from single phase 240volts supply.

The Lathe has a standard 3 phase motor and if possible i`d like to fit a single phase reversable one.
I have seen a post by a chap who swopped the star connections to Delta and used a Teco Inverter which is the other alternative method.
Link to that-

http://home.btconnect.com/astronoscope/Articles/M300.html

My Lathe is currently in storage while i build the 8 x 5 metre Garage workshop in my garden.
I have to go see the motor again before i can make a positive decission as to if its possible to use a inverter on it.
Below is the motor plate when i removed it some time ago for the asking.

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Here is the Lathe, i paid £600 for it when we removed it from a demolished school. The last remaining Classroom was the one with the lathe,
a tom senior milling machine and a small cnc engraver still in and being demolished as we pulled up in the transit pickup to move the gear.
Sadly! I couldn`t at the time afford the Tom Senior Miller and so it went on ebay and was snapped up for just under £1000. It really was as new.

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I Managed to aquire a Lead and plug for nothing from a firm next door and wired her up and tried her out with excellant results.

Thankfully! She came with the screw cutting gearbox as some did not.

I am almost 47 & a welder/fabricator and though it`s been a while since i was coded i still work with a variety of metals.

Look forward to future post`s and meeting people on here.

All the best to you all, Regards, Fred.

 

[Pete.]

Nice lathe Fred.

I have to say - I swapped the motor on my Denford for a single phase one and if I had the chance again I would definately NOT do it. THe three phase motor was lovely and smooth and quiet whereas the single phase one hums and you can feel the pulses through the machine. There's just no comparison.

Get a VFD and fit that - you won't be disappointed.

 

[Fred Moore]

as above

Thanks for the advice Pete.

This is what i was thinking of but being off ebay it`s probably some chinese copy and like you say Rubbish lol.
Shame though as its the same spec as the Lathes but 240volt.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Electric-Moto...al_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item4151a57e81

Fred.

 

[Pete.]

Yeah that's a china motor but they aren't all bad. Before you buy it though, you should factor-in the price of new contactors because the 3-phase ones in your lathe might not work on 240V - all depends on the pull-in coil voltage. There's also a good bit of re-wiring to do

 

[Engineer]

I have a 240v motor on my Colchester and it works perfectly...........if you are putting a 240v motor on a 3 phase machine, up the power of the 240v a bit and it will perform pretty much the same as with the 3 phase.

 

[Pete.]

You can't deny that the 3-phase motor is much smoother though? I thought there was something wrong with mine when I first powered it up as it made all the covers hum, but no - it's an inherant feature of the single-phase system.

 

[Shox Dr]

Never heard of a T300. It doesn't looks like a M300 (I have one) looks more like a M200. Nice find never the less.

I would buy a VFD, or a Rotary Phase Converter, you never know when some other 3ph bit of kit will come along. And since you have sometime before you get to use it, you can keep your eye out for one. I bought a 7.5HP RFC off the bay, for 100quid a few months ago, all it needed was a capacitor at £10.

 

[Fred Moore]

Yes this is true Pete, I`ll have to change the transformer. The link i posted suggests that guy used a 240 to 110v for the switching gear. He says that he tried 240v to the original transformer which only gave 60volt and made the switches chatter on and off.

Fred.

 

[Fred Moore]

Hi Shox dr, I don`t want to go for rotory converter because electrics expensive enough without running an extra motor ontop of the main lathe and coolant pump motor.

It`ll probably be a motor/inverter package as i`m sure my lathes motor isn`t suitable for inverters.

Fred.

 

[brightspark]

I have a 240v motor on my Colchester and it works perfectly...........if you are putting a 240v motor on a 3 phase machine, up the power of the 240v a bit and it will perform pretty much the same as with the 3 phase.

how do u work that one out .wether its single phase or 3 phase 1 hp is 1 hp output which ever supply

 

[Pete.]

My own lathe used 415v pull-in coils for the contactors and I got around it by stripping approx half of the turns off the coils so they would work on the lower voltage.

 

[brightspark]

My own lathe used 415v pull-in coils for the contactors and I got around it by stripping approx half of the turns off the coils so they would work on the lower voltage.

u can buy the contactor coils at various voltages to suit the aplication

 

[Pete.]

u can buy the contactor coils at various voltages to suit the aplication

I did look, but I couldn't find anything to match the 1980's contactors.

 

[jugs]

Yes this is true Pete, I`ll have to change the transformer. The link i posted suggests that guy used a 240 to 110v for the switching gear. He says that he tried 240v to the original transformer which only gave 60volt and made the switches chatter on and off.

Fred.

You don't use contactors with a VFD, the motor must be wired directly to VFD unit, (or pop goes the weasel )

 

[piman]

hello Fred,

you can get a 240 to 415 volt inverter :- http://www.drivesdirect.co.uk/Products/Digital_Inverters240_415.htm, but expensive. If you want to get a single pahase motor, get the same frame size, speed and as suggested, slightly more powerful than the 0.9Kw installed.

Alec

 

[Shox Dr]

hello Fred,

you can get a 240 to 415 volt inverter :- http://www.drivesdirect.co.uk/Products/Digital_Inverters240_415.htm, but expensive. If you want to get a single pahase motor, get the same frame size, speed and as suggested, slightly more powerful than the 0.9Kw installed.

Alec

It can't have the std motor on it if it's .9kw

M300s either had a 3ph 3HP motor or a slower less powerful 1ph unit.

Lathes.co.uk says
"Most models have 12 spindle speeds arranged in geometrical progression (in a ratio of 1.46) from 40 to 2500 rpm driven (on the English market) by a fan-cooled 2.2 kW (3 h.p.) 3-phase 1500 rpm motor; however, a number of lathes are known to have left the factory fitted with a 1-phase 1.1 kW (1.5 h.p.) 230 volt motor; this very much less powerful unit made a considerable differences to the spindle speeds:"


edit;


As I said earlier I thought it looked like a M200. quoted from lathes.co.uk sounds like you do have a M250 variant.

"Early models had 9 speeds from 40 to 1500 rpm (or, optionally, 80 to 3000) whilst the later (1998 on, approximately) M250 ran from 52 to 2000 rpm - the electric motor used on the slower model was 0.9 kW, with a 1.3 kW employed to drive the two faster machines."



A very good source of information is the Harrison yahoo group. Sign up plenty of guys on there on their onions

 

[Engineer]

Lathes fitted with dual speed motors wont run using less costly VFD's.................you can get them to work using much more expensive ones, but all in all simply fitting a 240v motor with a little more power than the 3 phase one will cost a lot less money than either of the VFD's.

Single phase motors dont work as smoothly as 3 phase, so upping the power if you intend to fit a single phase, tends to smooth things out, and in most cases wont cost that much more money.

 

[Wedg1e]

hello Fred,

you can get a 240 to 415 volt inverter :- http://www.drivesdirect.co.uk/Products/Digital_Inverters240_415.htm, but expensive. If you want to get a single pahase motor, get the same frame size, speed and as suggested, slightly more powerful than the 0.9Kw installed.

Alec

I use the 3HP 240-415V unit shown on the list on that page: it's bloody good. I have it arranged so I can run my Boxford VSL lathe or Perrin mill from it. It saves having to bu99er about changing motors and stuff on the machines.

I'm guessing a bit but perhaps the T300 is a 'Training' version of the Harrison, in the same way that Boxford did a 'TUD' - a CUD shorn of all the bits that make it useful - anyway it does look a very nice machine.

 

[Fred Moore]

Yes! The T300 is a training version of the M300. The Motor Plate in the 1st pic is what came on my Lathe but a sticker on the electrical cabinet states the same as the M300 which according to the M300 Manual i have is a 3 phase 2.2Kw 3hp motor. It is likely that i`ll go with Wedg1e on the inverter that leaves the machine intact. Though i`m good with wiring, test meters and so fourth if i do go with a 240volt motor.
Being as i havn`t been on here for a while & though i intended too. I`ve moved the Lathe from storage to my place of work for now so i have use of 3phase supply.
I did my 1st screw cut on it today. I had some 40mm solid T6 alloy bar given to me to play with which i messed about with till i decided to try a screw cut. So i machined the bar down for a 16mm standard thread of 2mm pitch. I Didn`t have a Thread gauge plate so i ground some HSS square stock bar so it fit into a single thread of a bolt. I Have to admit that i was slightly out with the tool so it wasn`t quite true to the Alloy. Nonetheless! The 16mm zinc plated nut i had to hand screwed on nicely. We have a small Engineering firm a few units from us and the top turner there had a look and said i`d done well for my 1st attempt. I was chuffed, even though its of course no major feat.
I look forward now to lots of learning. I`m starting to gather turning tools of various types. I have a 16mm shank Iscar boring bar that uses WNMG tips Which as i didn`t have anything else made a good turning tool for the trial. The finish I thought was amazing. Almost Mirror like, but when i get to grinding my own up that can do that then i guess it`s abit more achieved.
It`s been good to come back and see the replies Gents. I`ve been elsewhere with work for a while after being Laid off locally. That in itself delayed my garage workshop build with only the concrete Laid down so far. Least i can play with my Lathe now lol.
Next post soon will have some updated Pics.
Regards to all. Fred.