taiwanluthiers
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2016
- Location
- Xinjhuan District, New Taipei City
So I just moved into a shop without 3 phase power. I asked the landlord about getting it and he said it would cost about 1200 dollars to do so. But since I only have about 3 machines (mill, bandsaw, and air compressor) that needs 3 phase, it's really not top priority. The landlord would pay the cost if I pay an extra 30 dollars a month in rent.
So I bought a RPC from someone, but unfortunately the idler motor it contains is basically rusted shut (the spindle will not turn no matter what). The sucker weights a ton, and I don't really know how to fix a stuck motor, so I went to the seller and told him. He gave me a static phase converter and told me to try it out.
So I did, and it turns out that it can get a motor spinning fairly easily, as long as there are no load. So I got the bright idea of hooking all my machines up to it, and using one machine's motor as the idler motor, I started that motor and everything else started working as though they are connected to 3 phase (albeit a bit slower start than grid level 3 phase power).
The problem is the air compressor... it is 5HP but it draws quite a big load at startup. If the circuit can't put out the necessary inrush the motor wouldn't spin up at all. So what I did was buy another 5HP 3 phase motor. Start that with the static phase converter. Once that spins up, I would start the band saw (which has a 5HP motor as well). The two motor combined gave enough juice to start the compressor even with the high startup load... might not be as fast as grid level but it got the job done...
I think I would want another 5HP motor for the simple fact that I really don't want to leave a bandsaw running unattended just so the air compressor can start up...
So I bought a RPC from someone, but unfortunately the idler motor it contains is basically rusted shut (the spindle will not turn no matter what). The sucker weights a ton, and I don't really know how to fix a stuck motor, so I went to the seller and told him. He gave me a static phase converter and told me to try it out.
So I did, and it turns out that it can get a motor spinning fairly easily, as long as there are no load. So I got the bright idea of hooking all my machines up to it, and using one machine's motor as the idler motor, I started that motor and everything else started working as though they are connected to 3 phase (albeit a bit slower start than grid level 3 phase power).
The problem is the air compressor... it is 5HP but it draws quite a big load at startup. If the circuit can't put out the necessary inrush the motor wouldn't spin up at all. So what I did was buy another 5HP 3 phase motor. Start that with the static phase converter. Once that spins up, I would start the band saw (which has a 5HP motor as well). The two motor combined gave enough juice to start the compressor even with the high startup load... might not be as fast as grid level but it got the job done...
I think I would want another 5HP motor for the simple fact that I really don't want to leave a bandsaw running unattended just so the air compressor can start up...