Determining Motor Voltage

I bought a Rockford Milling machine that has the motor in the base. I need to determine the voltage because I'll be buying a phase converter. Is there any way to determine the voltage using some sort of meter without getting inside the motor wiring box? The motor is mounted in the base with the shaft and pulley facing the rear of the mill and the wiring box is just about against the left side. It appears impossible to get inside the motor box without removing the motor from the mill. Removing the motor from the mill looks like quite a bit of work! Just hoping to save some time. The motor is a Continental 1.5hp 3ph 220/440 volt 1730 rpm. Of course my hope is it is already wired 220volt.
thanks,
danny

Do you have an "Amprobe" clamp-on ammeter? Can you borrow a clamp-on type of ammeter?

I am not suggesting wiring in an ammeter function, you might end up buying a "I guess I broke it" DMM.

Since you want low-volts, and you know the HP, you could:

Take a look at the heaters in the motor starter, see what the ampacity of the heaters are,and compare to the motor dataplate.

Just run the unit on low voltage....if you can do what you want, without the thing bogging down or tripping out, then fugget about it.

And along the way, check each leg for current consumed, and compare to the dataplate.

For all intents and purposes, running a motor on lesser voltage just means lesser output.

Don't try this with fans, pumps, conveyors, etc. Since you have control over the load of a machine tool, my tactics shouldn't get you into trouble.

If this motor is factory installed, there should be overload protection in some form. You need to verify this. If so and the motor is wired for low voltage and high voltage is applied, this protector/fuse will trip. In your case you are providing low voltage, so there is no damage risk, just motor power. A good clue is the strapping of other electric circuits on the same machine that would be easier to validate as the whole machine is centrally powered. It would be very unusual to see different strapping.

along s_w line, use clamp on ammeter (if u have a shop u need one anyway) and power up motor. as he said, assuming it runs correctly which it should, on ur 230v 3ph no matter which way it is wired, measure current. if wired for 230v it will show round 3 amps no load; if wired for 460 tho it will show prob less than 1 amp.

Thanks guys. I do have a clamp on amprobe and will get it wired now and see what I have.
Thanks again,
danny

If there is a machine tool transformer inside the electrical cabinet, that should be an easy check for how/what voltage the primary winding is tapped.

Practically speaking, if/when a machine has questionable provenance, such as "never saw it run, the guy who sold it to me said he never had it hooked up...." it's a good idea to check the taps/ windings/heater ratings on every motor, transformer, etc. of the machine.

Just a follow-up. I got the mill hooked up and running and found it IS 220 volt . Now that the voltage is settled I can get to working on cleaning things up and moving it to its final spot.
thanks,
danny