Cunliffe Mill Electrical Problems

Brain Coral said:
Mike, here's something that I looked at this evening...

C and A in the RPC panel are the incoming single phase lines and B is the "wild leg". Inside the idler motor, I had the "wild leg" hooked up to L2, so to speak. I have since changed that to L3. Then, where the 3-phase power comes out of the RPC to a female plug, I made sure that the "wild leg" goes to L3 in the mill panel terminal.

Before I did this, the "wild leg" went to L2 in the idler motor. Would this have had any affect on the issue ?

Brian
Click to expand...

anytime you change 2 of the 3 hot wires or the 2 supply wires place in relation to each other, you will reverse the rotation of the RPC and any motor hooked up to the RPC.
 
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Ok, I see... I did change the location of 2 wires in the plug, previously, so that the mill motor turned in the proper direction in order for the oil pump to work. But would the "wild leg" being hooked up to L2 in the idler have had any affect on the present circumstances ?

Brian
 
not likely the problem.
sometimes transformers don't like the generated leg- you don't appear to have a transformer.
if your contactors are pulling in and aren't buzzing loud i wouldn't be concerned.:))
 
Ok, so just now, I went down to the shop, first... to exchange L1 and L2 inside the idler motor to get the proper rotation again... Check... all is well...

I then had the RPC going and tried the pump switch. It sounded like it started, but did not engage the left motor contactor. Then, with the main motor hanging out of the back, but not engaged with the pulleys, I started the main motor in the low speed setting and then engaged the "rapid traverse" motor and, voila, the left motor contactor engages each time I push the button...

Brian :)
 
Duh:headshot:,
i made no consideration for rapid traverse...
we are both learning things here:))
 
Hello Mike,

The rapid traverse motor is a sizable motor and it didn't occur to me either at first... I was just running out of motors to try... ;)
 
Brain Coral said:
Hello Mike,

The rapid traverse motor is a sizable motor and it didn't occur to me either at first... I was just running out of motors to try... ;)
Click to expand...



:thumbsup2:
sometimes motors appear big but are deceivingly low horsepower.
 
So, are there any plausible reasons that come to mind that might be causing the motor contactor to "fall out" in the high speed setting ?

Brian :)
 
i'm going out on a limb and saying what a possibilities could be-

a wire somehow got reversed or out of place in the high speed switch or it's connection to the motor.

a faulty overload for the high speed motor control

control wiring issue unknown
 
Well Mike, at least we are getting somewhere. Slowly, but surely, we are eliminating some of the possibilities and learning more about the electrical system. I should keep careful notes for the next guy down the line... ;)

I might try taking some of the equipment out of the way, carefully photographing and documenting wiring, etc. to have better access to the switching. If there is any measurements that I should take, as in voltages, amperages, ohms, let me know.

Brian
 
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