Today I acquired...........

[Richiew]

Agreed, I use a 240 in, 415 out 3HP Teco to run my lathe and mill. Expensive but so is fannying about with motor swaps.

Wedgie,

Your and other peoples replies were definitely food for thought.
I spent a good while today looking for 220v to 380v vfds this afternoon and really struggled. Loads of really badly advertised Chinese junk that the seller had no idea about. "Single phrase" anyone? Some didn't appear to be earthed. Others, possibly subject to import taxes and long delivery times. I still wasn't confident about what was being sold and if they died on me it was money down the drain. I looked at British retailers such as Inverterdrive and they didn't seem to stock anything that would would run 400v from 220v single phase.

I suspect I'm in a funny segment in the market as I need 380v/415v at a low power rating (.55kw or effectively .75kw). After a bit of a search I think I might be best getting a cheapish vfd and swapping the motor at a later date. At least this way I can be sure the VFD and motor will work.

 

[Tupers]

A pack of 10 scratch resistant lenses for my Speedglas.

 

[Hopefuldave]

You can get 230v in, 400v out VFDs. I have one on my Chipmaster and RF30 drill mill. The drill mill one I put on a year ago or so, and is finest Chinese from Aliexpress. I will see if I can find the details if you want.

You can hack a 415 in too, quite a simple mod, I did on an old ABB to power my lathe (very non-standard motor)

Date H. (the other one)

 

[cheb]

Bad luck. Not like you can just dash to Kwik Fit!

I suppose that getting stuff that other people take for granted as easily accessible can require quite a lot of forward-planning up where you live?

There's bit's of life that require more planning, but there's a lot that don't. If it's important I've probably get a plan or a spare.

This is the first time in decades I've had a fast puncture, the rest have all been slow ones. Mildly annoying timing though.

 

[Newlands]

Wedgie,

Your and other peoples replies were definitely food for thought.
I spent a good while today looking for 220v to 380v vfds this afternoon and really struggled. Loads of really badly advertised Chinese junk that the seller had no idea about. "Single phrase" anyone? Some didn't appear to be earthed. Others, possibly subject to import taxes and long delivery times. I still wasn't confident about what was being sold and if they died on me it was money down the drain. I looked at British retailers such as Inverterdrive and they didn't seem to stock anything that would would run 400v from 220v single phase.

I suspect I'm in a funny segment in the market as I need 380v/415v at a low power rating (.55kw or effectively .75kw). After a bit of a search I think I might be best getting a cheapish vfd and swapping the motor at a later date. At least this way I can be sure the VFD and motor will work.

I bought a Huanwang vfd from eBay around 3 years ago for my lathe - no problems at all. I also had a motor which needed the star point digging out - not difficult at all despite never having done such a thing before. Since then I’ve bought another couple of vfd’s on eBay secondhand for not much money, to run a shaper and a mill. The vfd rating doesn’t have to match your motor btw, it can be higher eg a 3hp rated vfd will happily run a 3/4hp motor.

A cheap alternative to a vfd for a small 3 phase motor is to simulate a third phase by wiring in a capacitor - called a Steinmetz connection. You have to experiment with the capacitor value - somewhere between 10 and 60 uF - and check the voltages across each of the three ‘phases’ to try and balance them out as far as possible. There are a few videos on this by Andy Reynolds on YouTube. I’ve done it for the motor on my little Chinese hacksaw and not had any problems, but I’m not sure I’d want to do it on a lathe or mill which could run for long periods. My 750w motor needed a 30uF start/run capacitor rated at 450v bought from an eBay supplier. I think John Doubleboost has also done this for a pillar drill, and put out a video about two years ago.

 

[Geoffm]

I looked up the VFD I put on thecRF30. It is https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32830409238.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4darw9HG.
It doesn't matter if it has more capacity than your motor. The VFD is 4kw where the motor is 1.5kw in my case. It has a million programming settings, almost all you can ignore.

 

[Hopefuldave]

Can you draw a wiring diagram of your converter as I can improve my design and save me money and time?

PMed you the diagrams (power and control planes) for my 9 kva 240 to 415 and a few notes... It's not the cheapest way, but most reliable? Safest?

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[Memmeddu]

PMed you the diagrams (power and control planes) for my 9 kva 240 to 415 and a few notes... It's not the cheapest way, but most reliable? Safest?

Dave H. (the other one)

Thanks

 

[cianh91]

As I had a cheap draper one for a while to see if I’d use it I finally bought a decent one they’ve got very good reviews and all my batteries are makita anyway

 

[Mark 2]

View attachment 205462 As I had a cheap draper one for a while to see if I’d use it I finally bought a decent one they’ve got very good reviews and all my batteries are makita anyway

Ah, the Makita tea stirer

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Today in a skip I found this little lot.



This was just in view.



The contents are not much use to me, but the box was.

This was underneath.



it did not work, a quick test showed the mains cable was broken on the live wire.
A few minutes work and it was working.

@Chillitt I did better than the other lot.

 

[Ruffian]

View attachment 205462 As I had a cheap draper one for a while to see if I’d use it I finally bought a decent one they’ve got very good reviews and all my batteries are makita anyway

I think a full review is needed on this

 

[Memmeddu]

Two SDS max pointed chiesel
Cut 1,80meters of angle section 50x50x6mm steel to make the compressor frame (always the same endless three phase compressor project )
Some 2mm 6013 found a buddy shed

 

[cianh91]

I think a full review is needed on this

soon as I get to use it

 

[WorkshopChris]

Acquired but will be some time before I can evaluate the condition.
For scale, the smaller one is around 100mm Jaw.

 

[Wedg1e]

I suspect I'm in a funny segment in the market as I need 380v/415v at a low power rating (.55kw or effectively .75kw). After a bit of a search I think I might be best getting a cheapish vfd and swapping the motor at a later date. At least this way I can be sure the VFD and motor will work.

This is the 2HP version of the TECO I have: think I paid £250 for the 3HP second-hand...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-HP-DIG...-MILL-DRILL-/381709971603?hash=item58dfaff093

I can see that something like that would be overkill if you only ever expected to run a 3-phase piddly motor but if it was that small, a single-phase swap probably would be feasible. I worked on the principle that if I got other toys in the future, I'd already have the means to power them... and the spare capacity means that the inverter's barely working when running my Boxford under light load.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Walked to get the curry tonight.
Via a skip, just the one mind you.
Same skip I got the Screwfix Box and jig saw.

Found this.



It stinks of wet dog, for some reason.



But the curry house gave me this, and 9 others.



I am going to sample them, as off now.

 

[Parm]

Walked to get the curry tonight.
Via a skip, just the one mind you.
Same skip I got the Screwfix Box and jig saw.

Found this.

View attachment 205529

It stinks of wet dog, for some reason.

View attachment 205528

But the curry house gave me this, and 9 others.

View attachment 205530

I am going to sample them, as off now.

Mr Vark

I know your a big boy and a man of the world, but ......

Curries ain’t found in a skip

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@Parm
Ok a deal.
I educate you on whisky, you show me a year of curry.

 

[Parm]

@Parm
Ok a deal.
I educate you on whisky, you show me a year of curry.

That’s only quarter of a deal.

I’ve been educated enough, to know it’s not for me

Then teach a man to fish n all that.

I’ll give you lessons. Then you’ll forever be in curry

(Not such a good thing that)