Welder looking to buy a mill/drill for home use

Teglove2 said:
VFD? You guys are speaking pig latin lol. I have a lot of learning to do....
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VFD = Variable Frequency Drive, which is used to control the speed of an electric motor, and can also be used to operate a three-phase machine on a one-phase power supply. I must confess that until recently I thought the only way to operate a three-phase machine was through the use of an RPC.

RPC = Rotary Phase Converter, which essentially is a motor that creates a three-phase circuit configuration and allows you to operate a three-phase machine on a one-phase power supply.
 
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Teglove2 said:
VFD? You guys are speaking pig latin lol. I have a lot of learning to do....
Click to expand...
I'm not endorsing this unit, just showing how inexpensive it can be, do some research and find the right combo of features you want, the additional benefit for you would be the breaking functions (you have vari speed in the mill already) there is a lot that a VFD brings to the table and you really have the best of both worlds monster TQ at low speeds from the gearing as well as extended rpm if needed.
again I know nothing about that VFD it is just a price point for comparison.

BTW this is about as far as you can get from a 110v machine (well there is always the 20hp 480v 3ph VMC lol).
good luck and i think you are making the right move here even though i was not recommending this, ie it is easy to make smaller parts on a bigger machine but it is hard to do the reverse.

 
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FortyFivePalms said:
VFD = Variable Frequency Drive, which is used to control the speed of an electric motor, and can also be used to operate a three-phase machine on a one- or two-phase power supply. I must confess that until recently I thought the only way to operate a three-phase machine was through the use of an RPC.

RPC = Rotary Phase Converter, which essentially is a motor that creates a three-phase circuit configuration and allows you to operate a three-phase machine on a one- or two-phase power supply.
Click to expand...
Not trying to be the electricity police here, but there is no "2 phase" power. It is a common misconception as you are using two Hot legs to get 240v and actually using two phases if getting 208V from a three phase mains. However, these circuits are considered single phase. Two phase refers to an antiquated system no longer in use.
en.wikipedia.org

Two-phase electric power - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Eddyde said:
Not trying to be the electricity police here, but there is no "2 phase" power. It is a common misconception as you are using two Hot legs to get 240v and actually using two phases if getting 208V from a three phase mains. However, these circuits are considered single phase. Two phase refers to an antiquated system no longer in use.
en.wikipedia.org

Two-phase electric power - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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split phase is more accurate as opposed to single phase ie 110v house hold circuits or 220 v 50hz european power systems. technically it is not 2 phases of power because you cannot reverse the direction of rotation by swapping the hot legs. but this is not really important. and I need to stop to clean the weeds of my windshield now, yes i'm in the weeds lol.
 
Teglove2 said:
VFD? You guys are speaking pig latin lol. I have a lot of learning to do....
Click to expand...
Easiest, and nearly cheapest is to buy a static phase converter. I use one of these with my mill although I may convert it to VFD soon.

www.northamericaphaseconverters.com

Static Phase Converters | Electronic Phase Converters | NAPCco

Static Phase Converters A static phase converter is used to generate 3 phase power during the starting of a motor. A static phase converter consists of one or more start capacitors and a start relay. The start capacitors produce electricity across the third winding of a motor during start up,
www.northamericaphaseconverters.com www.northamericaphaseconverters.com

You just run 240v single phase to it and hook up your 3 phase machine. It does reduce available power but you’re unlikely to notice it for hobby use. They can be converted to a rotary phase converter pretty easy if you want later.

Nice to have one if you need to test, or hook up other 3 phase equipment in the future. Think I paid a little more than $100 for mine. It’s mounted on a board with an outlet for convenience.

John
 
Eddyde said:
Not trying to be the electricity police here, but there is no "2 phase" power. It is a common misconception as you are using two Hot legs to get 240v and actually using two phases if getting 208V from a three phase mains. However, these circuits are considered single phase. Two phase refers to an antiquated system no longer in use.
en.wikipedia.org

Two-phase electric power - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update. I have edited my original post to reflect the correction!
 
Teglove2 said:
To all,

I ended up getting the Sharp knee mill on Friday and man am I happy I did NOT buy a cheap chinese machine. I have also purchased a rotary phase converter which has been delivered. Thank you for all the input!
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good luck and enjoy
 
pontiac428 said:
I think you made the right choice, both with the mill and with the rotary. You'll grow into that machine like you couldn't with a hobby mill. The benefits of RPC is full power and transparent operation, just plug it in and run as it was built to, factory wiring intact.
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Thank you, sir I truly believe so. As far as setting up the machine for squareness what tramming device would everyone recommend?
 
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