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30 inch Rockford planner, need to reduce electric load,

Phil in Montana

Stainless
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Location
Missoula Mt
I have been saving a new 30 inch Rockford open side planner I bought from the Gov 30 years ago, came from the limestone caves close to Ft Sill Ok. Planner has never been used but has a 20 hp 3phase motor. I need to keep the fla below 25 amps after start up (240 volt). What I need to know is the hydrolic control means. I think it is a flow control with the unused oil being bypassed back to tank, with this type of control the motor will be heavily loaded. The best control would be a veritable volume pump, then I could slow the table down and reduce the load to the motor. Anyone have a book with the control blueprint? I can run it a my big shop but I need to reduce the fla so I can run it at home and I do have 3 phase power, just not a lot of it....Phil
 
I'm not very familiar with motor loads for hydraulic pumps, so this may be pointless. Still, can you 1) Put the pump motor on a commercial soft-starter? 2) Put a clutch between the motor and the pump, and engage the clutch after the motor is up to speed?
 
The start up (locked rotor current) is not the biggy a soft start will work well , its the fla after the motor is running. I can not exceed 11 kw...phil
 
Can you post a picture of the pump? The one I am familiar with used an Oil Gear variable displacement pump.
 
It has a oilgear pump, I don't know how it is controlled for f/r and the hydraulic circuit they used in 1953...Phil

Does F/r = Forward / Reverse?

Here is a video of one in my shop. It was taken after I got power to the pump and was filling it with oil. Sorry for the camera quality, I'm getting much better now....



On my YouTube channel, YouTube there are a lot of videos on the machine in the Planer playlist.

The pump is quite complicated and controls a lot more than just the forward and reverse. The unit also controls the speed of the return stroke as well as the forward stroke and both are adjustable individually. It also has a valve that starts and stops ,gradually, the table movement.

I have the manuals that came with the machine ( thanks to a very good man who shall be unnamed ) If you wish I could copy them for you, but I don't think there is much on the pump flow...
 
Steve,
Could you measure how much power yours uses in different operations (including idling), vs. the rating of the motor? Possibly this piece of information would give the definitive answer to Phil for the expected power draw of his.

Paolo
 
Perhaps put a VFD on it and reduce the rpm to the pump accordingly
Torque stays the same that way Only flow (is speed) is reduced then
No need for a slow start eighter

Peter
 
That was the fix I was thinking, but no vfd I have a open delta service. Plan to change the motor to a 15 hp 900 rpm, change the winding over to delta from a y (ends up as a 277volt) and feed it 240 with power factor caps (kvar) This would involve bringing all 12 leads out. I was hoping a mod to the hydrolic system would be easy, but without the blue print I dont know
 
Swatkins, I would love to have a copy, let me know what it takes and I will make it right for you....This will be used in my home shop and any info is helpfull...Phil
 
I have a 36" Rockford open side and a manual dated 1948.

It has a 10 hp 1200 rpm motor and a Vickers vane pump.

The hydraulic diagram shows the pump feeding the flow control
valve low on the operator side near the feed control cylinder.

You should be able to control the peak load with that flow control.

It also refers to different ring and vane elements for different motors.

If I can get one of my younger generation to scan some pages we
will try to post them.

petersen
 
Ok That would be helpful, I wonder why my planner has a 12oo rpm 20 hp,I need to pull the cover and see what the pump is, I thought they all used a oilgear. If it is a vane pump the job will be easy...Thanks Phil
 
Here are some images.

My Rockford manual has no copyright markings on the
title page or elsewhere.

However; some of the internal pages are marked
"reproduced by permission of Vickers".
with a copyright date 1943.

I will not post any of those pages.

Planer01.jpgPlaner08.jpgPlaner12.jpgPlaner28.jpg
 
Thank you very much, page 15 is the info I needed, real simple to change pump and motor. I probably have both laying around here somewhere. Real simple control.....Phil
 
Swatkins, I would love to have a copy, let me know what it takes and I will make it right for you....This will be used in my home shop and any info is helpfull...Phil


I tried making you a PDF of the Oil Gear stuff tonight... Got the file to this computer and it says the file is damaged... I'll try again tomorrow...

IS your pump like that shown in the above scans? If so mine is completely different...

Steve20160314_192903_resized.jpg20160310_150443_resized_5.jpg20160310_150432_resized.jpgpump1.jpg
 
...
My Rockford manual has no copyright markings on the
title page or elsewhere.

However; some of the internal pages are marked
"reproduced by permission of Vickers".
with a copyright date 1943.

I will not post any of those pages.


Yes, copyrights should be respected. However, it is legal to make 1 copy for non commercial use, so there's probably a workaround here. (Posting here for all bots to see ain't it, I agree.) But a photocopy in the mail would qualify...
 








 
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