motor retrofit

rockfish · Aug 29, 2006

I have a 1958 #4 turret lathe.

Is it possible to replace the 3 phase 15hp motor with a single phase unit of some kind ???

rockfish

John Michael · Aug 30, 2006

It doesn't sound practical. 15 HP @746 watts / HP = 11,180 watts @ 100% efficiency On 230 VAC that is 49 amps. General rule of thumb says motor will draw 6 times nameplate current momentarily while starting or about 300 amps. You would have to have a pretty heavy duty electrical service to have that available.
Isn't the original motor flange mounted to the headstock? I don't know if anyone ever made a 15 HP, 230 VAC, single phase flange mounted motor. You might have a chance to rig something with a smaller motor. I am not familiar with a 1958 model, maybe that was belted.

Bill Gent · Sep 3, 2006

Hi, Fish,

You can make your own phase converter from another 15 HP motor.

Just connect your single-phase wires to two of the three wires on the converter motor, then attach the three wires from the three-phase motor to the three wires on on the converter motor.

Then, all you need to do is give the converter motor a little spin, and the whole works will start up

The 15 HP driven motor doesn't need to be running for this to work..

Good Luck!

BG

rockfish · Sep 3, 2006

Thanks,

I'm actually looking into that idea right now.

millman5 · Sep 28, 2006

I'd keep the original motor on there if I could at all. I have a #4, It was wired for 220V 3 phase when I bought it. so I just matched wire size to the old pigtail & didn't check to see what was even on the nameplate of the motor....

I do know the motors from W & S lathes do not fall short on brute torque.

It's nothing for The #4 to reduce the diameter of a 5" CRR Grade 1045 by 1/2" in a single pass, using TNMG 544 inserts.

millman5 · Sep 28, 2006

One other note: When originally hooked up I ran it from a 7 1/2 HP rotary converter that wasn't even balanced with run caps. It started & had plenty of guts even at that.

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motor retrofit

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