Mercury Startrite Pillar Drill

[Coo]

After seeing this ad:

Startrite Mercury bench drill.

Its a 10 speed 3ph model with a 16mm chuck,its a got a basic table with some sort of ford transit jig bolted to it (through standard holes so no extra ones!)

Ive also got a 240v to 3ph inverter which i have'nt fitted yet either, erm...bad bits are one of the arms is missing (1 of the 3) which was missing when i bought it and have'nt fitted another one but its an easy job and it needs a chuck key also but im told they should be fairly easy to get hold of.

It's a heavy lump but far better than a normal diy machine and i think it had a replacement 3 ph motor in the last few years.

I bought it.
Picked it up at the weekend, and had a play tonight with it to make sure it's working. Had some success !
Now I'm new to buying heavy gear like this, so excuse my ignorance etc....
Couple of questions about it though, some which I think I can answer myself, but all help appreciated

First off, I have a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aonhVIJ7cEs

Okay, as you can see it looks a bit wobbly when running.
I presume this is because I've not levelled the mounting of it ?
...or could it be something else...

Speed - not sure on the invertor settings, I think I was playing with startup speed.....there are still the pulleys and belts on the drill, so to alter the speed should I move the v-belt around, or keep in middle setting and play with inverter for speed ??

Power - Recently new motor, on the label it states two voltages, so must be dual voltage motor yes ??
Also on inside of wiring for the motor, it shows high and low voltage wiring..
So theorhetically I could wire it direct to 240v, without the inverter ???
Pics added:

Cheers all

 

[brightspark]

no it cant just be run on 240 without inverter . its 3phase either 440 star conection or 220v delta conection low voltage. the invertor would be wired for low voltage delta or mesh . u can use the speed controll of inverter but it would be best to alter the belt speed to gain more torque at lower speed

 

[stormin]

First off you can't wire it direct to 240v without the inverter as it still wants three phase electricity to turn the motor. The motor would likely just sit and hum without turning.
You need to wire the motor as shown in the lower diagram marked "mesh" or more commonly known as delta. This will maximise the torque out of the motor with the inverter.
Ramping the motor speed up and down with the inverter rather than messing with belts is fine in most cases as long as you're not working it too hard. At low motor speeds you won't get the same cooling air through the motor and could overheat it. Also the inverter will probably allow you to run the motor at double the intended speed but the bearings may not be upto this. I tend to limit my inverter running to +-50% either side of the normal 50hz i.e between 25 and 75 hz.

Not sure about the vibration. From the video it would appear as though either the spindle is bent, the top pulley is not sat square on the spindle or the top spindle bearing is loose. more investigation required.
Also it would appear that the quill is stuck out and not returning into the machine. It is best to run with as little quill travel as possible to minimise play or runout and load on bearings.

 

[Coo]

Okay, that clears things up power wise.....
So mesh is same as delta - should have noticed delta symbol on motor sticker
Belt change it is then.

I'll check on the spindle,
I want to change the routing/or extend the wiring anyway, will give me a chance to get stuck into it...

Not sure what the quill is....off to google I go !

Cheers for the swift replies

Edit:
Quill = spindle, again I can check when giving it a once over clean/lube

 

[JimM]

Personally I'd run the inverter at 50Hz and change speed with belts. Depending on the type of inverter, if you drop the frequency too low you can start to lose torque.

You'll probably find that 90% of the time you can leave the drill on one speed anyway

Regards

Jim

 

[stormin]

Edit:
Quill = spindle, again I can check when giving it a once over clean/lube

Not quite. The quill is the internal part of the spindle that travels vertically up and down. The spindle itself doesn't travel vertically but just rotates inside the head with the top pulley attached. The quill usually has a morse internal taper to take the drill chuck or drill bit.

 

[Coo]

Found the Startrite spares supplier, with an exploded parts view.
Great that spares are still available.

So that will allow me to have a look at a few things.

I'll strip, inspect and clean bits and see how I get on.

 

[astro_al]

Hi, it'd be a good reference for people if you could post details of the supplier (if its not Startrite directly).

Good luck, Al.

 

[Coo]

Ahh yes,

Spares available from:
http://www.machinespares.net

Machine Spares Ltd
Garratt Street
Brierley Hill
West Midlands
DY5 1JU
tel: +44 (0)870 870 2550
fax: +44(0)870 870 2660

Model reference and parts identifier:
http://www.startrite.com/index.php#

Under Drills - Spares...
Direct link to Merciry Startrite 10 speed parts drawing: link(PDF File)

 

[Luke]

What's the inverter make/model?

 

[Coo]

It's a Eurotherm 601 series

Which I'm yet to fully understand !

 

[superls]

eurotherm drives can be a bit of a pain, we have wsed them in the past at work, ill have a browse through our manuals when i get a chance, what power is it?

ive got a Siemens Micromaster 420 on my drill, works a treat, only takes a couple of minutes to set up, but they can be a little expensive.

 

[Luke]

Yes, Siemens drives are much much nicer to use, but then I would say that.....

 

[Luke]

Eurotherm 601manual

You've got some control over the V/f characteristic to help improve low speed/starting torque. You ideally want to be running the motor around rated frequency, But there's no reason you can't run it slower. You will obviously move along the torque curve, and you'll have to watch cooling, as the self-driven fan will be turning slower.

 

[paul_f]

Thanks for the contact for machine spares, they sold me a second hand mercury belt cover (the cast piece and sheet flap part) for 20+VAT

My drill is now complete again (the previous owner never used the drill from new, but managed to lose the top cover)

 

[Coo]

Cool, glad to have helped !

Luke, I may pm you at a later date when I get a chance to play with it again !

 

[ukracer]

Any one check this thread out and see if they can see what fitting holds the chuck on. I dont know enough about it to see what the drawing is showing. I have the same machine but I dont think I can use morse taper drills in it!

THanks in advance

Regards Andy T

 

[brightspark]

is there a diagonal slot in the quill pull it down slightly and u should be able to see through it if so it will have either a no 2 or 3 morse taper in it holding the chuck in. if so it can be drifted out and u can use taper drills instead of just the chuck with strait shank drills

 

[Fintray]

Andy IIRC the Startrite uses a different taper, I'm pretty sure someone on here used to machine the tapers. I'll look and see if I can find the thread.

 

[ukracer]

is there a diagonal slot in the quill pull it down slightly and u should be able to see through it if so it will have either a no 2 or 3 morse taper in it holding the chuck in. if so it can be drifted out and u can use taper drills instead of just the chuck with strait shank drills

This is the issue no slot I can see . I have adapters for morse 5 down to 1 for the lathe but only ever used the chuck that was fitted on the drill when it came.. I have had it for probably 25 years but never had a decent supply of small morse taper drills or the need to use them either really. But chuck is in need of a looking at so I was hoping I might be able to convert it.