I had students with a Can manufacturing company that got a big
machine that was 3-phase all over it. the motors had to start
in the correct direction the first time. I seem to recall something
like gear train destruction would occur. I luckly found a Neon lamp
tester in a magazine that fit the bill. This was in the early 70's.

Martin

On 1/12/2016 12:09 PM, Leon Fisk wrote:
On Tue, 12 Jan 2016 09:57:33 -0800 (PST)
rangerssuck wrote:

snip
How do "real" electricians identify the phase connections when they can't count on the wire colors?

I was only an "apprentice" but 30 years ago we just hooked up the
equipment and noted the direction. Once we had a really expensive
plastic injection machine. That was a bit nerve wracking. We had one
of us watch a motor and the other give it a quick bump on/off. We had it
wrong of course, switched the wires around, it worked okay yet...

Nowadays you can buy rotation testers for not so much. I would just buy
one if I was still working with that kind of stuff. For instance:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...3+phase+tester