I recently won an auction lot for three Baldor grinders. Originally thought they were 8" based on the auction pictures, but turns out two of them are 1.5hp 3 phase 10" grinders. All three are three phase, the 8" and one 10" are 240/480 dual voltage, but unfortunately the other 10" is only 480v. I have a feeling they are all wired for 480, but changing the leads on the other two is something I think I can figure out myself.
I've got about $300 total into this lot of grinders, a pretty good deal in my area and all of the cast iron guards are in perfect shape. I'd really like to be able to use the odd 10" 480v, but I am a bit of an electrical delinquent and reading about transformers for the last couple days has left my fairly confused.
From what I've read it seems that a 480v primary/240 secondary transformer, dry type I think, should be alright to wire backwards to step up my 240v 3 phase power coming from my 10hp RPC. The name plate on the grinder listed an amp draw of 1.3, so I think that would mean a 1 KVA or larger transformer would be alright to use?
My confusion starts around different transformers being Delta-Delta or WYE, as I have no idea what that means. I dropped the grinder off at my local motor shop to have it surge tested to see if its good or not. The guy at the motor shop seemed to explain that I would need a true Step Up transformer to run this, $$$, as he was trying to explain that wiring a step down transformer backwards would not give me the full power out of the grinder, along with something about grinders having a high amp draw at start up.
I am contemplating just selling the grinder if it tests good, to recoup my auction price, make some money on top and avoid dealing with all of this. Though the idea of having 480v available is enticing as I do have a habit of acquiring machinery and there have been a few cheap 480v 12" grinders I've passed on that would be nice to have if I could use a single transformer for multiple machines, though probably not at the same time.
I've attached a picture of a local transformer for sale near me that caught my eye, it seems that 3 phase transformers aren't nearly as common as single phase, and I believe the 3 KVA means I could possibly power a larger hp motor off of it. I've seen mention of using multiple machines with one transformer requiring a branch circuit, and a branch circuit being more complicated than wiring to one machine? For my uses having a transformer with a 240v input plug and a 480v output plug would be adequate, the idea being I'd just unplug one machine from the output and plug in another to use, if that would be possible.
I'm obviously out of my element here, but I like to learn new things.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated, Thanks.
I've got about $300 total into this lot of grinders, a pretty good deal in my area and all of the cast iron guards are in perfect shape. I'd really like to be able to use the odd 10" 480v, but I am a bit of an electrical delinquent and reading about transformers for the last couple days has left my fairly confused.
From what I've read it seems that a 480v primary/240 secondary transformer, dry type I think, should be alright to wire backwards to step up my 240v 3 phase power coming from my 10hp RPC. The name plate on the grinder listed an amp draw of 1.3, so I think that would mean a 1 KVA or larger transformer would be alright to use?
My confusion starts around different transformers being Delta-Delta or WYE, as I have no idea what that means. I dropped the grinder off at my local motor shop to have it surge tested to see if its good or not. The guy at the motor shop seemed to explain that I would need a true Step Up transformer to run this, $$$, as he was trying to explain that wiring a step down transformer backwards would not give me the full power out of the grinder, along with something about grinders having a high amp draw at start up.
I am contemplating just selling the grinder if it tests good, to recoup my auction price, make some money on top and avoid dealing with all of this. Though the idea of having 480v available is enticing as I do have a habit of acquiring machinery and there have been a few cheap 480v 12" grinders I've passed on that would be nice to have if I could use a single transformer for multiple machines, though probably not at the same time.
I've attached a picture of a local transformer for sale near me that caught my eye, it seems that 3 phase transformers aren't nearly as common as single phase, and I believe the 3 KVA means I could possibly power a larger hp motor off of it. I've seen mention of using multiple machines with one transformer requiring a branch circuit, and a branch circuit being more complicated than wiring to one machine? For my uses having a transformer with a 240v input plug and a 480v output plug would be adequate, the idea being I'd just unplug one machine from the output and plug in another to use, if that would be possible.
I'm obviously out of my element here, but I like to learn new things.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated, Thanks.