Bringing home a new Drill Press

[rwhite692]

I'm bringing home an industrial drill press this Friday, it is a Solberga SEnr7 geared head (8 speed) with power down feed. Made in Sweden.

It has a 220V, 60Hz three phase motor (as I'd expected). So, I will need to get a phase converter for it. Looking at the motor plate, it would seem that depending on how it is operating it produces either 0.8 or 1.2 Horsepower, which seems about right.

Ordinarily, I would probably have probably avoided this machine (being 3-phase) but as on much 3phase industrial equipment, the deal was just too good. I was able to operate it and confirm that everything on it works beautifully, except that the quill return spring is a bit weak. The construction/feel/craftsmanship on this machine is truly exceptional.

Converting it to single phase motor is out of the question, because the speed changes are accomplished not only by gear change, but by the fact that the motor is switch-operated at two ("high" and "low") speeds, 3300 and 1760 RPM.

Any recommendations on phase converters? I think I'd like to avoid going with a rotary phase converter if possible, but I realize that a solid state converter in the 1.5HP range won't be cheap...

 

[Mickey O]

That's a nice drill press by yiminie, working on watches?

 

[lessan]

Something like this should work..... and its only $111

http://www.wttool.com/product-exec/product_id/5181/nm/Standard_Duty_Static_Phase_Converters

 

[Falcon67]

I paid about $180 for my 2HP VFD converter.

 

[A_Pmech]

Very nice.

Time to build an RPC so you can power other 3-phase equipment in the future.

 

[rwhite692]

Very nice.

Time to build an RPC so you can power other 3-phase equipment in the future.

That's what I was starting toward thinking as well...Might as well do a RPC and have full power out of the equipment, and enough extra three-phase power to run other stuff too.

 

[HemiRambler]

I second the notion of building a nice Rotary Converter - for the same reason mentioned - I see MORE 3 phase equipment in your future!!!! I run several machines with mine and once I made the plunge - the deals fell into my lap!!! I highly reccomend it!!

 

[tatra]

i've used that exact one..........i am jealous.............

 

[Aberdale]

I would also recommend the RPC. I bought mine used off CL. It was much easier to install and wire than I thought. Check out Practical Machinist web site, there are several threads on the advantages and disadvantages of static vs. rotary vs. VFDs. There are also examples of how to wire each.

Dale

 

[rwhite692]

Aberdale I indeed found a lot of great info on the Practical Machinist site. I have a line on a 5HP three phase motor to use as the basis of my RPC.

Tatra and others, thanks for the compliments....As it turns out I will be getting the press for about the cost of a cheap blu-ray player. It will probably cost me more to build the RPC, but when all is said and done it should be a real nice setup.

 

[35mastr]

My 20" press was 3 phase. I just bought the same frame and spec motor in single phase. It wass cheaper than building the converter.

 

[rwhite692]

35Master, I had considered doing that but if you read the first post, the machine relies on switching the poles of the existing three phase motor, to achieve two primary motor speeds.

Building the RPC will cost me less than $100 and as others have stated, it will be handy to have three phase power available in the shop for running other equipment.

 

[rwhite692]

Well today I started searching for a three phase motor to act as the idler for my Rotary Phase Converter.

What happened next was just...pure, crazy dumb luck.

I found a guy selling a 5HP three phase Dayton motor (Model 3KW37) on craigslist, he was asking $75 for it, and not far from my work, so I met him at the local shopping center during my lunch. Sounded like a pretty good deal, since the motor sells for $333 per Grainger's website.

The motor appeared brand new, it didn't even have any marks on the mounting flange from ever having been bolted down to a piece of equipment. Likewise, the shaft had not a single mark on it, and a length of keystock still taped in place.

I gave it a spin and took a good strong whiff of the windings for good measure, no smell of death, so I took a chance on it and offered him $50, and he took it.

The kicker to this already great deal, was that as we were finishing up our transaction, he reached into the trunk of his car and he says, "Oh yeah, this goes with it!"

(part of me thought, Oh ****! he's going for a shotgun!)

....and he hands me a Phase-O-Matic (PAM900HD, 4 to 8 Horsepower) as pictured in Lessan's post, above.

He didn't know what it was.

I explained to him what it was, told him what they cost, etc, and offered to give him some more money for it, but he wouldn't hear of it. He said "It doesn't matter to me, I'm just glad that YOU know what it is, and that you can use it".

He mentioned he was in the process of selling off a bunch of remaining items which hadn't sold, from a relative's recently completed estate sale.

I thanked him (several times!) and was on my way.

I plan to hook it up to start the idler, as shown in the attached diagram from Phase-o-Matic's website.

Of course, I could just use the Phase-O-matic alone (in static mode) to run the drill press, but then, I would only get about 66% of the power out of the drill press motor. Running the idler as a rotary transformer/generator, I will get full power.

It's just crazy, how things happen sometimes.

 

[A_Pmech]

Sounds like you'll be up and running soon.

 

[Mickey_D]

If the magic smoke has not leaked out you should be in great shape. I have two rotary converters, a 15HP and a 30HP model, both from American Rotary and have been very happy with their service. Besides selling complete turnkey setups, I noticed that they also just sell the head/control panel if you have your own motor.

When you go to wire it all together, make sure that you breaker the motor so that you don't burn it up if something goes wrong. A lot of the smaller motors (like on drill presses, surface grinders, etc..) do not have magnetic contactors with overloads built in, so you have to rely on the external breaker. For small 3 phase breakers, I get them from factorymation.com. They have lots of nice switches, DIN rail accessories, enclosures, really whatever you need and their technical support on their stuff is second to none.

 

[rwhite692]

Mickey, thanks for the advice and the factorymation link. I didn't realize it at first while looking at their website, but I actually used to deal with that company many years ago in the pre-internet dark ages, LOL, when I was working as a test engineer in a manufacturing plant.

I'm not experienced with circuit protection for three-phase applications, see if this sounds right:

The motor on the drill press (spec plate) says it draws a max running current of 3.5 amps. Of course, starting current when the switch is thrown, will momentarily exceed that. Let's say worst case, it's 7 amps.

So If I were to get a three pole breaker, which has a discrete breaker for each of the three legs, I could go with three 2A breakers or three, 3A breakers.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Friend of mine has a drill press like that. Be careful. They are gear driven. If something hangs up there is no belt to slip. With a two axis sliding vice you can drill very accurate holes. The slow low end speed is perfect for hole saws. You are a lucky guy.

 

[Aberdale]

Congrats on finding a 3ph motor and the P-O-M! Sounds like a great deal.

Dale

 

[rwhite692]

Thanks, Bib. I have used the gear-driven ones before and you are very right, good clamping of the workpiece, and being extra-careful is extremely important.

 

[kvom]

Here's an offical GJ "you ****" for getting such a great deal.

I would have recommended a VFD, but that's a much better option. While you could hardwire the 3PH output to the drillpress, it would be better to foresee other equipment and build some sort of switching or multiple outlet setup.

 

[rwhite692]

Thanks kvom...

I have the RPC up and running now and next step is to set up multiple 3ph outputs.