Knackered Herbert pillar drill

[Drains]

Dev, check the motor plate - if it's says 3 ph 220v anywhere, just buy a 1ph to 3 ph inverter for a few pennies and wire it up. It sounds exactly like my Fobco (Brook, etc), and cost me £30 for total variable speed.

 

[Dev]

 

[Big Pete]

you're good to go, you need to change the connections in the terminal box to delta and hook up an inverter. Should be pretty cheap for that size

 

[Dev]

I did a quick google for inverter and it came back with ones costing hundreds, have you any links to what I need to get. Or better yet a "how I changed my drill to single phase" thread

 

[wheresmejumper]

check ebay for a VFD, variable frquency drive

 

[brewdexta]

I did a quick google for inverter and it came back with ones costing hundreds, have you any links to what I need to get. Or better yet a "how I changed my drill to single phase" thread

Try here

its 370W so I upped it to 550W - you always want to be on top of the job

I like the Mitsubishi ones - I've heard others do too.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Dev]

Excellent range of units, but looking like £125 plus postage, and that's without adding in an upgraded motor

Still, I suppose you do end up with an infinitely variable drill speed for that.

Another question: how can I determine the correct quill I need?

From the lathes.co.uk site:

On early versions of the drill three choices of spindle end were available: a ordinary Jacobs No. 6 taper (to carry no. 34 Jacob chuck) or a long external taper having either a No. 1 or No. 2 Morse insert. While the latter two were adequate for light work, because the bottom speed was too high for use with larger drills it was decided (in the early 1990s, and rather late in the day) to modify the assembly by making that section of the head holding the clamp-on chuck guard an integral part of the casting. This increase in diameter and length allowed a larger, 25 mm ID bottom bearing to be fitted together with a bored-out quill assembly to take a spindle with either internal No. 1 or No. 2 Morse taper - or an external chuck-mounting Jacobs fitting. The later quill and spindle assembly can be used as a direct replacement in the earlier machines and substantially improve their drilling performance.

 

[Drains]

Inverter Supermarket have them for less than £125 - more like £75... Go for 370W if that's what you need. You can normally set a VFD for maximum current output, plus overspeed them to 60hz (which is handy as it ups your speed range), and set speed up and braking/stopping time.

Otherwise, used, Ebay - "single phase inverter", "VFD" or "variable frequency drive". Enough there to bid on.

 

[Dev]

Thanks drains, found one that looks perfect - nothing fancy but pre configured and includes an emergency stop button.

Just need to test the motor next, if its dead I might as well replace it with a bigger one & inverter.

 

[Dev]

Quick update - I'm just back from my local friendly engineer. Motor works and sounds smooth so looks good to go with getting an inverter and rewiring it to Delta.

The ID of the bottom bearing is a little under 12mm, so I'm guessing that means a 1 Morse Taper. That's fine, I can see 1MT chucks on ebay that go up to 16mm.

I take it there's no point in getting a 1MT to 2MT apapter since if I try and drill anything bigger it'll stall the motor?

 

[Big Pete]

not necessarily, depends on what you are cutting and how big a pilot you start with. You can drive a big drill through ally, or open a hole out by a couple of mill in steel. The downside is that ant inaccuracies tend to be magnified by the expanders.

 

[zx9]

................. That's fine, I can see 1MT chucks on ebay that go up to 16mm. .................

You could use Blacksmith's drills if you need bigger than 16mm.

 

[brightspark]

You could use Blacksmith's drills if you need bigger than 16mm.

a set of these u mean there pretty crap as they pull hell out of your drill and if used with a chuck that has even a no 2 morse taper will rive loose ive ended up buying large no 2 mt drills at autojumbles for about 3 to 4 quid each to fit in the tailstock on lathe the drill just gets up to half inch drills pluss they need to be run verry slow or chatter like hell

 

[ronan]

The only time I have used the big drill bits successfully is in a big old Archdale radial arm drill in the place where I served my apprenticeship. The small drilling machines like the ones we have in our sheds and garages just don't have the rigidity to drive them. I use hole saws instead.

 

[Dev]

Help!

This is the inverter I got for the drill (though the 1/2 HP version) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-Up-Re...ial_Automation_Control_ET&hash=item2a2c475006

As I've never done this before I was attracted to the idea that I could just stick a plug on one end, the drill on the other and away we go.

Heres what the manual says in relation to connecting the power;

Heres the way I wired it. Not shown is the wires to the motor which were Earth, Blue, Brown Black

Turning it on at the plug resulted in the Main trip going. SWMBO was not mpressed. My first thought was I'd made a mistake in wiring the motor from Star to Delta, so I disconnected it and tried again. Tripped the fuse again.

Anyone know what I've done wrong?

 

[brightspark]

r u sure that earth is in the right place it says pe on the silver top screw ??

 

[Dev]

You think that's the common earth then? I'll risk the wrath of 'er indoors and nip out to the garage and check it...

edit: Yep that seems to fix that problem. Still not working but at least its not killing the power every time I turn it on.

 

[Paul.]

I hope you haven't fried it, ug+ and ug- are for connections to a braking module, 240 volt 3 phase out to the motor will be on U V W, with L1 and N to feed it, And PE for the earth.

 

[Dev]

Fingers crossed indeed I haven't killed it. Hopefully not as its powering on in standby mode but when I switch the motor on it stops and gives a blinking warning light...

Does it matter which order the wires are for U, V and W?

 

[Paul.]

Fingers crossed indeed I haven't killed it. Hopefully not as its powering on in standby mode but when I switch the motor on it stops and gives a blinking warning light...

Does it matter which order the wires are for U, V and W?

No, if the motor runs in reverse swap any 2 of them over,