- Joined
- Jan 26, 2021
- Messages
- 345
Earlier this summer I received my new ACRA 1440C lathe. At 2700 pounds there was no way I was wanting to deal with the unloading duties. I ended up having it delivered to a local crane service company. When it arrived they unloaded the machine from the delivery semi and loaded it on their flat bed truck. They then loaded their forklift on the truck as well and delivered it to my shop. Here's a few pics of that experience. I will admit, even though they are professionals it still stressed me out to watch the whole ordeal.
When they arrived at my home not only did they drive it into my shop but they were able to push it right through my French doors and into the separate room where the lathe will live. Here's what it looked like after they left.
I am able to use my pallet jack to move the lathe around. I still need to get the machine off the pallet but that was NOT the most important task at hand. This is the part of the thread where I bring in Mark Jacobs. My lathe came with a 5hp three phase motor so I knew I was wanting a VFD setup to run things. I toyed with the idea of just buying a rotary phase converter and calling it a day but what fun would that be? I contacted Mark months ago about building a VFD and he and I exchanged a few emails back and forth about the build. Okay, who am I kidding......I sent Mark so many emails during the whole VFD build process that he jokingly mentioned that he should have charged me by the email. At least I think he was joking! What can I say about Mark that hasn't already been said in many past postings? I've had many dealings online but dealing with Mark was a really nice experience. If you email him with questions you don't get a few word reply in return. No, you get a wealth of informative instruction sent back at ya. After doing alot of reading about VFD's I ended up going with the full Mark Jacobs VFD build. That meant opening up the control box on the back of my brand new lathe and gutting everything out. I mean everything.....contactors, fusing, transformer, disconnect switch, and all the wiring. Here's what it looked like before........
And here's what it looked like after.
So I ended up shipping the bare galvanized back plate from the lathe to Mark where he built up his end of the VFD by wiring the main control board and building all the cables. Here's what it looks like after installing it back into the control box on the back of the lathe. Hopefully Mark will stop by and explain in more detail about the main control board.
On my end I was responsible for building out the VFD enclosure. I was able to do this with extensive help from Mark. I've done plenty of house wiring but never something like this so Mark basically held my hand and I pretty much just did what he told me to do. I ended up going with a Yaskawa GA500 5hp VFD. The main power cord for the VFD is a 50 amp welders extension cord that I cut the end off of and wired it into the enclosure. Since I had plenty of the cord left I ended up using the extra wire for the inside wiring of the VFD enclosure. So yeah.....the wiring inside is rather large. I ended up cutting a viewing window on the front door of the enclosure so I could see the front display on the VFD. I also repurposed the original light from the factory front controls on the lathe as an indicator light on the front door of the VFD enclosure (Thanks Blades for the good idea!) Here's some photos of the VFD enclosure.
Needless to say I'm extremely happy with the outcome and it would have never been possible without Mark Jacobs and his Steller knowledge of these VFD systems. I'm really looking forward to threading with Marks proximity stop system. I have done alot of threading back in my days as a machinist but it was the old seat of your pants way of doing things. This proximity stop setup will be something I have never done before. As mentioned I still need to finish cleaning up the lathe and getting it off the pallet and pushed into place. Many thanks again to Mark for all his help. I had a really good time putting this all together.
Here's a few more pics!
When they arrived at my home not only did they drive it into my shop but they were able to push it right through my French doors and into the separate room where the lathe will live. Here's what it looked like after they left.
I am able to use my pallet jack to move the lathe around. I still need to get the machine off the pallet but that was NOT the most important task at hand. This is the part of the thread where I bring in Mark Jacobs. My lathe came with a 5hp three phase motor so I knew I was wanting a VFD setup to run things. I toyed with the idea of just buying a rotary phase converter and calling it a day but what fun would that be? I contacted Mark months ago about building a VFD and he and I exchanged a few emails back and forth about the build. Okay, who am I kidding......I sent Mark so many emails during the whole VFD build process that he jokingly mentioned that he should have charged me by the email. At least I think he was joking! What can I say about Mark that hasn't already been said in many past postings? I've had many dealings online but dealing with Mark was a really nice experience. If you email him with questions you don't get a few word reply in return. No, you get a wealth of informative instruction sent back at ya. After doing alot of reading about VFD's I ended up going with the full Mark Jacobs VFD build. That meant opening up the control box on the back of my brand new lathe and gutting everything out. I mean everything.....contactors, fusing, transformer, disconnect switch, and all the wiring. Here's what it looked like before........
And here's what it looked like after.
So I ended up shipping the bare galvanized back plate from the lathe to Mark where he built up his end of the VFD by wiring the main control board and building all the cables. Here's what it looks like after installing it back into the control box on the back of the lathe. Hopefully Mark will stop by and explain in more detail about the main control board.
On my end I was responsible for building out the VFD enclosure. I was able to do this with extensive help from Mark. I've done plenty of house wiring but never something like this so Mark basically held my hand and I pretty much just did what he told me to do. I ended up going with a Yaskawa GA500 5hp VFD. The main power cord for the VFD is a 50 amp welders extension cord that I cut the end off of and wired it into the enclosure. Since I had plenty of the cord left I ended up using the extra wire for the inside wiring of the VFD enclosure. So yeah.....the wiring inside is rather large. I ended up cutting a viewing window on the front door of the enclosure so I could see the front display on the VFD. I also repurposed the original light from the factory front controls on the lathe as an indicator light on the front door of the VFD enclosure (Thanks Blades for the good idea!) Here's some photos of the VFD enclosure.
Needless to say I'm extremely happy with the outcome and it would have never been possible without Mark Jacobs and his Steller knowledge of these VFD systems. I'm really looking forward to threading with Marks proximity stop system. I have done alot of threading back in my days as a machinist but it was the old seat of your pants way of doing things. This proximity stop setup will be something I have never done before. As mentioned I still need to finish cleaning up the lathe and getting it off the pallet and pushed into place. Many thanks again to Mark for all his help. I had a really good time putting this all together.
Here's a few more pics!
