Single phase to 3 phase

[tomlad]

At the moment only have access to single , bought a machine with a 3 ph 3 ph motor, considering options.
Machine marts converter doesn't seem to expensive....

Clarke PC60 - 5.5HP Phase Converter - Machine Mart - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

Anyone any experience, or one to sell me
Tia tom

 

[davidroberts30]

Look on "inverter supermarket"

 

[Mursal]

How big a motor

 

[tomlad]

3 hp

 

[br jones]

Get s single phase motor

 

[Blue.]

I run a 1.5hp 3ph motor on a fan via a 3 pin plug,works a treat and is variable speed now.?

 

[Lincs Lass]

Transwave converter.
Neighbor has one to run his lathes,mills .

 

[sjt01]

Look inside the terminal cover of the motor. Under the lid may well be a diagram of how to connect it to 230v 3 phase. If you do this, you can then run it from a 230v single phase inverter, as mentioned above Inverter Supermarket are good

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

At the moment only have access to single , bought a machine with a 3 ph 3 ph motor, considering options.
Machine marts converter doesn't seem to expensive....

Clarke PC60 - 5.5HP Phase Converter - Machine Mart - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

Anyone any experience, or one to sell me
Tia tom

Tend to agree with @br jones @ 3hp size its a relatively easy size to accommodate on single phase and you can easily get a quality single phase motor for less than 1/3 the price of the single to three phase converter.

 

[Lincs Lass]

3 hp motor on my compressor, runs on a 16amp blue plug

 

[tomlad]

Havnt studied motor yet ,or indeed the metal milling machine, only collected it yesterday, but i don't think a motor swap would be straight forward. Not like the motor hung on the back of my harrison lathe.
If finishing the 3 ph connection isn't too expensive thats the way I'll go but Scottish power are being incompetent as yet. Im inpatient to make some chips

 

[ridger]

I bought a used inverter about 12 years ago for £500. No trouble with it yet and runs 9 three phase motors most of the time. Three phase connection was £18000 at the time, supply had to come all of 80 feet, so wouldnt like to be bringing it too far

 

[Netherfield]

I bought a used inverter about 12 years ago for £500. No trouble with it yet and runs 9 three phase motors most of the time. Three phase connection was £18000 at the time, supply had to come all of 80 feet, so wouldnt like to be bringing it too far

No doubt a lot of this would be the cost of the transformer.

 

[ridger]

No doubt a lot of this would be the cost of the transformer.

There is already one on that pole, its laughable.

 

[Larel]

At the moment only have access to single , bought a machine with a 3 ph 3 ph motor, considering options.
Machine marts converter doesn't seem to expensive....

Clarke PC60 - 5.5HP Phase Converter - Machine Mart - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

Anyone any experience, or one to sell me
Tia tom

I have that model. It runs my Radial Arm drill on slow speed no problem, but wont run it on fast speed. It runs my Colchester Student lathe for about 10 minutes then it trips, let it sit for 5 and it will run again. (I Haven't investigated too far but am assuming a thermal overload is not happy with the supply). Finally my circular saw runs fine when it is up to speed but there is loads of contactor chatter when it is running up. (I wont admit it online but I'd go as far as to say there's so much contactor chatter that you may have to hold the contactor closed with a stick!)

So other than the drill on slow speed, I think its safe to say I haven't had a lot of success with the invertor. Having said that I have since bought a tractor driven 3 ph generator for another task, but haven't been inconvenienced enough by the invertor to be forced to get the generator wired into the workshop yet.

 

[traineefarmer]

Swapping the motor will be cheaper than an inverter, but may not be possible due the motor frame sizes, etc.

I ran a lathe, saw and large drill on an inverter for several years, but didn't find it ideal. They draw a lot of power and don't always like regular start/stop cycles like you get from some machine operations. That said, it worked for 15 years until National Grid renewed the cabling round here and a 3ph supply was brought within a few yards of the farm connection, so we bit the bullet and "plugged in"

If you do decide to go down the inverter route you should consider a few things.

Don't buy cheap, they will be inefficient, unreliable and unrepairable. Get a Transwave or similar.
Get a variable output unit if you are considering buying more 3ph equipment. A pillar drill will have a smaller motor than a lathe and will need a different start current.
Some machine tools have integrated suds pump motors and don't like being subjected to the large start currents for the main drive motors, so you may have to swap the suds pump for a 1ph to protect it.

 

[tomlad]

Thanks chaps ill phone Scottish p again
Usually after 15 minutes on hold i hang up .
Also seems ill may have to change to a business tarriff , they mentioned the wording on my council tax bill , that may be a can of worms i really do not want to open

 

[crofter 65]

I use a rotary converter for my Harrison lathe, it wasn't cheap but I wanted to keep all the original control's and suds pump which if changing to a single phase motor would have been difficult/complicated.

 

[tomlad]

My harrison 140 has a 240 motor , i believe to b original

 

[Deutzdx3]

You can change the terminals in the motor to run in delta and then it can be run from an inverter. IMO are decent.

Other option is a 1-3 phase static converter if it’s just the 1 machine at a time you wish to run. I have a 20hp rotary which allows me to run several machines at the same time also a static for my screw compressor. They are very reliable as there are no moving parts. Have had them for 13 years. We got our from motorun. For your application I would go down the inverter route though and change the motor tabs to delta. £100 ish will have you up and running. Also you’ll have variable speed by adjusting the hertz. Don’t go below 40Hz or above 60Hz as you can damage both the motor and inverter.