How to provide 480V 3Phase to drill press

I did bid on the drill press, they are expensive new, in he $2400 range, but I lost out to higher bidders at $675 plus auction fees and sales tax which would have put it about $900 if I would have gotten it for the price someone else paid.

Thanks for the information. This will no doubt come in handy in the future.
 
Cut to the chase.
You have two real options:
1. Walk away from the deal if all you have is single phase 220. It will cost you more than the drill press is worth to convert single phase 220 to 480 three phase.

2. See if you can find a cheap 220 single phase motor which fits the drill press.

The last time I used a 3 phase 480 "drill" it was a Radial Drill with power feed, and was used to drill 6 inch diameter holes in heavy thick steel plate. For a drill which is the size of the one you pictured, 480 three phase is massive overkill.
 
Is it a two speed motor? If so, it's entirely possible to rewire them - not rewind - for 220V. You often have to take the stator out to access the coil wiring, but it's not hard assuming you're comfortable with a soldering iron and multi meter. I've done three so far, all successful. Means you can run a cheap 220V VFD.
 
Lo-Fi said:
Is it a two speed motor? If so, it's entirely possible to rewire them - not rewind - for 220V. You often have to take the stator out to access the coil wiring, but it's not hard assuming you're comfortable with a soldering iron and multi meter. I've done three so far, all successful. Means you can run a cheap 220V VFD.
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Something to keep in mind. I was concerned with assuming I could make any changes to an internally housed motor. If it had been external, I may have looked at it a little more seriously, but the price it went with was just too high for my blood.

These auctions get 13% on top of bid and then Sales Tax on top of that. This unit is a monster also weighing in at 600lbs. Nice unit but I can't see spending the money on it as I doubt that I would use it enough to justify. Add to that, by the time I purchased the unit, paid the fees, bought a step up tranformer and a VDF I would be very close to the cost of one of these brand new with the voltage and phase that I need.
 
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I wouldn't touch 440/480v, even for a nice lathe. Small 2hp drill, sure, transformers work. I have a big step-up that has been under power without interruption for 5 years in my basement. It wastes about 25% of its efficiency to heat, and it's a big inductive load when powering up. If you are looking at a RPC on top of that, the costs add up. It would be a $1500 proposal for a 3hp (real output) RPC, transformer, power panels, cable, breakers... it does not help at all when the power conversion costs more than the machine tool.
 
Lo-Fi said:
Is it a two speed motor? If so, it's entirely possible to rewire them - not rewind - for 220V. You often have to take the stator out to access the coil wiring, but it's not hard assuming you're comfortable with a soldering iron and multi meter. I've done three so far, all successful. Means you can run a cheap 220V VFD.
Click to expand...
Now you have my interest!
I have looked at all the possibilities to rewire a two- speed 3-phase motor and could not figure it out.
I'm very familiar with the construction of the stators of Dahlander motors (which is what I have).
I can obviously rewire it to single speed 230V 3-phase, but found no way to get 2-speed at that voltage.
Please get in touch here or by PM.

Cheers
Joe
 
Joe in Oz said:
Now you have my interest!
I have looked at all the possibilities to rewire a two- speed 3-phase motor and could not figure it out.
I'm very familiar with the construction of the stators of Dahlander motors (which is what I have).
I can obviously rewire it to single speed 230V 3-phase, but found no way to get 2-speed at that voltage.
Please get in touch here or by PM.

Cheers
Joe
Click to expand...



I've not messed with trying to wire it switchable two speed on low voltage - I don't think that's possible (but now I'm wondering). Not that it's that much of an advantage when running a VFD anyway. I've just done the same on my Arboga drill press which has a different winding scheme, but still fundamentally the same thing. Shout if you want to talk it through
 
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