Real machining content (ar least to start)

I only have 220 single phase in my shop. I got a super deal on
an Emco compact 10 lathe-mill that has 3 phase 220 3/4 horse
motors on both spindles.

In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.

I am looking at Teco-Westinghouse unit. and will most likely sped
the few dollars additional for the 2 HP/7.5 amp rated unit.
1 hp/4.5 amp 182$ +SH
2 hp/7.5 amp 246$ +SH
at
Dealers Industrial Equipment
pob 217
Brookline, NY

their website is www.dealerselectric.com

Anyone deal with them? Anyone have experience with the
Teco-Westinghouse VFD converters?

Thanks in advance for your advice or war/sea stories.

Uncle George

"F. George McDuffee" wrote:

Real machining content (ar least to start)

I only have 220 single phase in my shop. I got a super deal on
an Emco compact 10 lathe-mill that has 3 phase 220 3/4 horse
motors on both spindles.

In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.

I am looking at Teco-Westinghouse unit. and will most likely sped
the few dollars additional for the 2 HP/7.5 amp rated unit.
1 hp/4.5 amp 182$ +SH
2 hp/7.5 amp 246$ +SH
at
Dealers Industrial Equipment
pob 217
Brookline, NY

their website is www.dealerselectric.com

Anyone deal with them? Anyone have experience with the
Teco-Westinghouse VFD converters?

Thanks in advance for your advice or war/sea stories.

Uncle George

I'm not sure you've got the economics right. I rigged up a rotary
converter for my 1 hp Bridgeport for about $20 in materials. I didn't
get fancy with it, but it has been working perfectly for years. For your
machine with two 3/4 hp motors a single rotary converter could provide
you with ample power to run both motors at the same time if you wish.
With the VFD you would either need two VFDs, one for each motor, or a
single VFD to timeshare and you'd have to be very careful not to switch
a motor off independent of the VFD since they don't like having motors
disconnected while running.

Pete C.

I've bought from Dealer's. They are great. Good advice over the phone
after the sale.
I bought a Teco unit, maybe the same size as you are talking about. It
wouldn't work at first, I forget which setting wasn't set to a useful
default, but the guy at Dealer's helped me set it up on the phone.

Steve

F. George McDuffee wrote:

Real machining content (ar least to start)

I only have 220 single phase in my shop. I got a super deal on
an Emco compact 10 lathe-mill that has 3 phase 220 3/4 horse
motors on both spindles.

In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.

I am looking at Teco-Westinghouse unit. and will most likely sped
the few dollars additional for the 2 HP/7.5 amp rated unit.
1 hp/4.5 amp 182$ +SH
2 hp/7.5 amp 246$ +SH
at
Dealers Industrial Equipment
pob 217
Brookline, NY

their website is www.dealerselectric.com

Anyone deal with them? Anyone have experience with the
Teco-Westinghouse VFD converters?

Thanks in advance for your advice or war/sea stories.

Uncle George

I bought a 1 hp Teco unit from them for my mill. It works great.
...Mike
"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
...
Real machining content (ar least to start)

I only have 220 single phase in my shop. I got a super deal on
an Emco compact 10 lathe-mill that has 3 phase 220 3/4 horse
motors on both spindles.

In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.

I am looking at Teco-Westinghouse unit. and will most likely sped
the few dollars additional for the 2 HP/7.5 amp rated unit.
1 hp/4.5 amp 182$ +SH
2 hp/7.5 amp 246$ +SH
at
Dealers Industrial Equipment
pob 217
Brookline, NY

their website is www.dealerselectric.com

Anyone deal with them? Anyone have experience with the
Teco-Westinghouse VFD converters?

Thanks in advance for your advice or war/sea stories.

Uncle George

VFD's are a nice solution, you would need two of them for around $400
total.

Or build a rotary phase converter for $50 and some puttering around.
Surplus 2 hp 3 phase motor, about 80 microfarads of run caps, and a
contactor.

F. George McDuffee wrote:

Real machining content (ar least to start)

I only have 220 single phase in my shop. I got a super deal on
an Emco compact 10 lathe-mill that has 3 phase 220 3/4 horse
motors on both spindles.

In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.

I am looking at Teco-Westinghouse unit. and will most likely sped
the few dollars additional for the 2 HP/7.5 amp rated unit.
1 hp/4.5 amp 182$ +SH
2 hp/7.5 amp 246$ +SH
at
Dealers Industrial Equipment
pob 217
Brookline, NY

their website is www.dealerselectric.com

Anyone deal with them? Anyone have experience with the
Teco-Westinghouse VFD converters?

Thanks in advance for your advice or war/sea stories.

Uncle George

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 20:37:04 -0600, F. George McDuffee
wrote:

Real machining content (ar least to start)

I only have 220 single phase in my shop. I got a super deal on
an Emco compact 10 lathe-mill that has 3 phase 220 3/4 horse
motors on both spindles.

In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.

I am looking at Teco-Westinghouse unit. and will most likely sped
the few dollars additional for the 2 HP/7.5 amp rated unit.
1 hp/4.5 amp 182$ +SH
2 hp/7.5 amp 246$ +SH
at
Dealers Industrial Equipment
pob 217
Brookline, NY

their website is www.dealerselectric.com

Anyone deal with them? Anyone have experience with the
Teco-Westinghouse VFD converters?

Thanks in advance for your advice or war/sea stories.

Uncle George


I have a VFD from automation direct (automationdirect.com) on my mill
(1 HP South Bend) it is one of these:

http://tinyurl.com/acsw7

Mine is a GS1. It works great, I've been using it for a few years
now. I have used a number of these GS series drives for stuff at work,
and am very happy with them. Tech support is good, documentation is
good, units have been robust and reliable. Prices are pretty
competitive, too.

I can second the endorsements of the folks at Dealers Electric. Very
nice and helpful folks there, in my experience. Bought some stuff from
them through work.

You can build an RPC for less money and a bit more time, but I have
really come to appreciate the variable speed and other features of the
VFD. I now have several 3 ph machines, and have a seperate VFD on
each.

Everyone looks at the cost/benifit a bit differently, but my take is
that I generally end up keeping any given machine for a very long
time. the extra 150 bucks for the VFD gets spread out over many, many
years. Every time I have bought one, it KILLED me to shell out the
extra money for the VFD, but that is pretty quickly forgotten once you
are enjoying the use of you new machine.

Good luck.

All standard disclaimers: no connection, just a satisfied customer,
some setteling, blah, blah, blah...

-AL A.

There is no advantage to oversizing the VFD. Buy the 1 hp model.

You will get plenty of advice on building a phase converter. Forget it.
The advantages inherent in having variable speed completely outweigh the
possibly lower costs of a homebrew phase converter. Most of the top of the
line tool room lathes have a mechanism for infinitely variable speed
control on the fly. Once you get it, you will know why.

Randy
(VFDed lathe, mill & belt grinder)


"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
...
Real machining content (ar least to start)

I only have 220 single phase in my shop. I got a super deal on
an Emco compact 10 lathe-mill that has 3 phase 220 3/4 horse
motors on both spindles.

In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.

I am looking at Teco-Westinghouse unit. and will most likely sped
the few dollars additional for the 2 HP/7.5 amp rated unit.
1 hp/4.5 amp 182$ +SH
2 hp/7.5 amp 246$ +SH
at
Dealers Industrial Equipment
pob 217
Brookline, NY

their website is www.dealerselectric.com

Anyone deal with them? Anyone have experience with the
Teco-Westinghouse VFD converters?

Thanks in advance for your advice or war/sea stories.

Uncle George

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 20:37:04 -0600, F. George McDuffee
wrote:
In reading the threads on the rotary and static converters it
appears that the cost to rig something is about as much as
getting a 220 single phase powered VFD with 3 phase output.
yada-yada-yada
snip
Thanks for the advice from those what 'been-there-and-done-that.'

The caution that I would be unable to run both motors at the same
time from a single vfd was the deciding factor as the lathe
motor/leadscrew is what provides the table feed for the mill on
an Emco compact 10.

A rotary phase converter it is.

Off to check the local OK Electric shops [every town seems to
have an OK Electric -- is this some sort of chain or just a
catchy name like Acme?] for used motors and caps.

Thanks for the offer of a free 2HP/3ph motor and caps. Any idea
what these weight, and are these regular UPS freight?

Uncle George

R. O'Brian wrote:

There is no advantage to oversizing the VFD. Buy the 1 hp model.

You will get plenty of advice on building a phase converter. Forget it.
The advantages inherent in having variable speed completely outweigh the
possibly lower costs of a homebrew phase converter. Most of the top of the
line tool room lathes have a mechanism for infinitely variable speed
control on the fly. Once you get it, you will know why.

Randy
(VFDed lathe, mill & belt grinder)

What he said. I have a 10" lathe and a knee mill
and both of them have 1 hp VFD's. I've never
tripped them under load and they work perfectly.
A back-geared lathe with a vfd has no problem
turning 10 rpm if you need it.

snip
forgot to ask. Are you going to be starting both 3/4 HP motors from a
2 HP idler at the same time? Or at different times?

If so, then a 2 HP idler may be insufficient to reliably start two 3/4
HP motors. Experts here may have something to say.
=====================
start no -- run yes [lathe motor runs the leadscrew which is the
mill cross feed]

Extra low speed for lathe with a vfd is very appealing for
threading.

I can see winding up with both a rpc and vfd with some sort of
cumshaw switching arrangement to put the vfd where I need it.

To avoid the "the better is the enemy of the good" problem I will
get the rpc up and the lathe-mill installed and running and then
think about a vfd.

To the people that asked about the Emco Compact 10 -- these are
long out of production but you can see a picture with information
on my website at
http://www.mcduffee-associates.us/ma...emcoLathes.htm

I bought the one with the mill head when I retired.

more info avaialable at http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page8.html

I have come across a site with PRC machine tools that appears to
show an adaptation of this machine.
http://www.lathemaster.com/LATHEMASTER9x30Lathe.htm




Uncle George