Beginer/economy lathe and mill for me

oldestof11 said:
Guys in my factory machine shop said when they were in class 30 years ago, they made a 3ph converter out of 2 motors. A single phase turned a 3ph motor and that one ran the mill. Now, the catch was the 3ph motor had to be 1.5 times more HP than the milling motor.
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This works, but depending on your hp requirements, a static converter works well but only delivers 2/3 hp. Bonus is that you can fire up another machine, it generates the "wild" leg and the machine you need is back to full power.
 
9724VF350 said:
Been to HGR several times, they're about a hour from me. Love it. Buddy of mine went to school with the sales manager, we've walked out of there with stuff for 1/3 of what it was priced at.

If you're serious, drag a trailer up some Saturday, Tracey will give Steve the same old song and dance about how we're just a bunch of dirt poor dumb farmers LOL and we'll get you a deal.

Or give me inventory numbers and I'll have him call.
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Perfect, do they keep all that stuff in house? I thought it was scattered about the country.
 
joefarmer said:
Use a VFD from Variable Speed Electric Motor VFD Drives by Driveswarehouse to convert from 1-phase to 3-phase. As an added benefit, you also get a variable speed spindle.
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I would use this^^^^

9724VF350 said:
This works, but depending on your hp requirements, a static converter works well but only delivers 2/3 hp. Bonus is that you can fire up another machine, it generates the "wild" leg and the machine you need is back to full power.
Click to expand...


Unless you have multiple machines I would just find said single phase motor to run on lathe


oldestof11 said:
Guys in my factory machine shop said when they were in class 30 years ago, they made a 3ph converter out of 2 motors. A single phase turned a 3ph motor and that one ran the mill. Now, the catch was the 3ph motor had to be 1.5 times more HP than the milling motor.
Click to expand...

Going to this trouble would only be good if you have multiple machines. Besides finding a large single phase motor could be fun.

The VFD solution is the best in my opinion.
 
roachie said:
Perfect, do they keep all that stuff in house? I thought it was scattered about the country.
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I guess they could have stuff scattered all around, dunno. They have a massive building in Cleveland that I've always went to.


Bonus, you won't have to find a box to ship a flywheel housing. LOL
 
Also check out your local colleges and boces schools. They have to update there machinery every so often to keep up with the technology. Especially colleges/ trade schools. Get in contact with the machining teacher and become friends with him. He could give you a great deal before they go to auction. They maintain their equipment in the colleges. I went through it about 7 years ago and I keep in contact with my machining teachers so when I get my shop finished and the stars align I'll have a chance to get my hands on a 3 axis Bridgeport protrac. I machine for a living so a conversational mill suits my needs, but you should be able to pick up a nice manual Bridgeport for a good price. Plus you could test drive before you buy!
 
Search for bank liquidations. I picked up a Bridgeport with over 10k in controls and tooling for less than 2k. All the controls were already set up to run off single phase and I also use a variable frequency drive to do the phase conversion. I actually set up a independent 3 phase circuit in my shop with a single drive. It is programmable with memory so I store the different parameters for each 3 phase tool and just switch it based on needs. Not only will a good freq. drive allow speed control but you can also use it for a ramped start up speed and put a cap on the amperage drawn by each device. Beats the old rotary converter I had by a long shot. On the old rotary it would draw so much power my lights would restart, but with the drive incandescent bulbs barely even dim.
 
My intention was to have a VFD do the phase conversion, but at the new shop it's wired 3-phase. I may still look into it for the variable speed ease.
 
For some reason this didnt show up on my Sub'd threads.

I'm looking less intently now as I have access to a pair of CNC mills and a brand spankin new MAZAK lathe at work. Plus I now have 3 trucks and a car to fix. LOL
 
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