3 Phase For Shop?

[Industrial Toys]

I put VFDs on a friends lathe and mill. He just loves them. Lathe is 230 and Mill is 600, using a transformer to first make 600 from 230 and then to the VFD.

Beware of VFDs that have been sitting unused for a while. Two we had, blew up, because the capacitors had to be reformed! Who knew?

 

[TractorGuy]

Check at Gov Planet to see if they have any MEP-803A surplus generators near you. They are switchable from single to 3 phase. It could double as house current during an outage. Be aware the MEP-804 and up are 3 phase only. The 803 delivers 10KW constant and surges above that in single phase.

 

[aczlan]

No motor is 100% efficient, but it would run at least a 8.5 hp load and pull a little over 30 amps single phase. At a guess, I could build the whole thing for $500. The video was great, but the wiring looks pretty puny. I would upsize the power lines to 8 gauge copper, but the capacitor connections would be fine with smaller wire.

Just a note, if you're only pulling 30 amps you only need 10 gauge wire. Overkill is never a bad thing, but if you are only putting a 30 amp breaker in, you don't need wire any larger than 10 gauge.

Aaron Z

 

[Stimw]

. A three phase motor operated on single phase only has 57.7% of it痴 nameplate output .

So it was off by 8.98%,it worked good enough for my needs!
Isn't math Fun?

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Just a note, if you're only pulling 30 amps you only need 10 gauge wire. Overkill is never a bad thing, but if you are only putting a 30 amp breaker in, you don't need wire any larger than 10 gauge.

Aaron Z

The motor nameplate says 34 amps. That would be the max 1 phase current. Naturally, as soon as you get 3 phase it would drop to around 20 amps. I figure to put it on a 50 amp breaker in the service panel. Maybe 40 amps, which is good for 32 amps continuous, but a 50 amp circuit would be better.

 

[Industrial Toys]

ALSO, you need to derate VFDs when running on single phase and some won't even run without three phase.

 

[buickanddeere]

I put VFDs on a friends lathe and mill. He just loves them. Lathe is 230 and Mill is 600, using a transformer to first make 600 from 230 and then to the VFD.

Beware of VFDs that have been sitting unused for a while. Two we had, blew up, because the capacitors had to be reformed! Who knew?

. Careful you don’t confuse our American Cousins with the superior 600V over their puny 480V.

 

[Industrial Toys]

480 is for children with bobby pins!