Need help with a VFD for my mill

I'm a great fan of Automation Direct. I have a GS-2 3HP on my BP clone mill with the removable control panel on the mill with F-OFF-REV & E-stop mounted in a Home Depot plastic enclosure. Their interface cable and another multiconductor cable make the connections to the drive in an enclosure mounted on the wall behind the mill. Power is routed separately. Another 3HP unit is awaiting installation on my Harrison M300 long bed lathe and a 120 VAC in 220 3 ph out unit awaits installation on my SP 9A. bench lathe.
 
Bill, How do you like that joystick for control for your spindle direction? I have been thinking on going that route as well.
 
WDG said:
I have three VFD's that I got off Ebay. No problems with them. One of the manufactures mentioned that even though you do not use it very often you should turn the power to the VFD on to keep the capacitors charged up. Not sure what will happen. The other thing to remember is to let the VFD start and stop the motor. Do NOT put output power to the forward/reverse switch on the mill and use that to start stop and reverse. The VFD won't like it and it probably won't last long. Also I bought some pots and have some extra ones. I bought several because the cost and shipping were better. I can sell you just one if you want. Let me know and I will send you a picture of it so you can see if it will work for you. warrengrant@yahoo.com Put VFD in the subject line so I won't delete it. One of the members mentioned that he used the drum switch and wired it to the VFD for forward and reverse. That's a smart way to do it. I put mine in a box and just turned the drum switch on and taped in that way so no one would move it. Haven't had a problem. I wired the VFD to two three phase outlets and unplug the mill when I want to use my surface grinder. A little of a irritation but not worth buying a second VFD.
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Check out WDG's article on putting a VFD on his mill!
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/content.php/1353-Puttiing-VFD-on-my-Mill

Good work! I love to see how people do this!!
 
Here is some info for a do / do-not I put into a thread last month.
http://machinedesign.com/motorsdrives/feed-your-vfd-right-power


I recently hooked up to a BP 815 surface grinder to a China import 3HP for 135. On my Mill, I did the Hitachi WJ300 line. Both work well. No pics of your junction box and contactor and such on your mill, but you will need to wire around or thru you old junction box setups. VFD directly to Motor, fwd/rvs to VFD, etc. For you Noise and chokes notes, the do/do-not has some good stuff. Also there are some very nice VFD fused on/off input power throws. automationdirect.com for a quick looksie and go from there.

Ohhh.. And I bought my mill used. From a guy w/ an electrician buddy. And the on/off for the Mill was a opn/close switch on 1 leg of the VFD 220 input. don't let that happen to you.


melsdad said:
I guess that
is something that may be shop specific. I have read about noise filters ahead of the vfd and wondered if I needed one while I was wiring everything. Guess I will just wait and see.

Thanks
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Realized I didn't show any finished picture of the machines control panel.

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I would also like to thank all of those that helped me on this project! I honestly could not have tackled this project without the help from you guys.
 
I have three VFDs and only one is in a metal enclosure. I don't pay much attention to the radio so I don't know if it would interfere or not. I bought some extra pots but don't remember if they are 1 or 10 turn. And I don't know if they would fit on your VFD if that's where your going to mount it. Even if I put it in an envelop the cost would run about $10 shipping and for the pot so you can probably do better at Radio Shack as someone suggested. I post some pictures that might give you an idea of what I did. I had two different machines that I wanted to run off of one VFD so I had to wire it to a couple of receptacles and just remember not to plug two in at the same time. Since I'm the only one using them it's not a problem. On my lathe and bench mill I mounted the VFD on the mill from a plate and the lathe I just mounted it to the wall. Plenty of smart people on the forum to help you out. Most, smarter than me.
 
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