Drill Press electrical question...

[hill]

I have been looking for an old Buffalo with a back gear for a long time. The reason is I use hole saws for anything over 1 inch diam. The secret of drilling deep holes with a hole saw is to drill a small relief hole say 1/4 " diam in the kerf area first . This lets the chips drop through when the depth gets deeper than the gullets on the hole saw teeth. Hole saws in metal want to run really slow. My drill press at it's slowest belt speed is way too fast. I have a gear drive for it but then it is too slow for everything else. It one or the other. So My question is Will a MFD drive work on single phase? Have never used on but if it does it would sure solve this problem.

VFD's are almost all made to control 3 phase motors and only a few relatively low horsepower examples will convert single phase supply to three phase operation.

Something to think about in your case is the use of a direct current (DC) motor with a speed controller. They almost all allow for the full range of speed from zero to the motor rated speed, infinitely variable all the way. There's good torque from bottom speed to top speed as well making a DC system almost ideal for a steel cutting drill press.

A common source of DC motors and controllers for hobbyists is broken or unwanted exercising treadmills. They often have 2 hp motors and a way to turn their speed up and down while plugging into the household current. As a last resort such stuff can be found in eBaY for not much money.

 

[Bill_C]

VFD's are almost all made to control 3 phase motors and only a few relatively low horsepower examples will convert single phase supply to three phase operation.

The Minarik drives at surplus center handle single phase input and will run either single or 3ph motors according to their website

http://www.minarikdrive.com/catalog/Page35.pdf

But they are sorta expensive and Hill's right, they are only available in 1 hp and smaller sizes. (Though my drill press--17 inch floor-- is only 3/4 hp I believe...so a 1 hp should be plenty of oomph)

 

[6sunset6]

Ah that last post is what was looking for. This is a single phase motor I want to run slower. BTW some motors have special shafts like extra long for stepped pulleys and is is hard to find replacements. I had a small mill one time with a 3ph motor I just could not replace , that's when I got into rotary converters. But the VFD sounds just right for my drill press problem. Heat would not be a real problem . I don't think it's ever taken loger that 5 min to drill a hole with a hole saw, even an inch deep.

 

[sandman2234]

One of the problems with trotting down to Harbor Freight, besides spending USA dollars on Chinese crap, would be one thing that 3ph motors have that make them superior to single phase. That is being able to reverse directions while at speeds. So if you have a drum switch on your drillpress and the drill breaks thru but hangs up, a flip of the switch and it backs itself right out. Never have seen a single phase motor that can do that more than a couple times without damage.
David from jax