Reply to Thread

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Message: <blockquote data-quote="BillM" data-source="post: 3980228" data-attributes="member: 45785">I got my VFD used off ebay for about $50. Similar VFD's with the same rating are available for about $114 new. Mine is a TECO L510, .5hp, 115vac 1p input, 230vac 3p output. A similar model rated for 230vac 1p input, 230vac 3p output, 2hp, is $238. Some of those are imports, but WEG is a good brand of import. They can be used on one machine. Doesn't have to be that way, though. Build a place to hang it, and a way to plug and unplug it, and you could move it from machine to machine. NOT saying a rotary converter isn't worth doing, but unless you have a source of really cheap large 3phase motors, it's going to be expensive to build. I had one machine that I wanted to put a 3ph gear motor on, thrown away at my work, and they told me as long as it left the building they didn't care what happened to it. If I can ever get the motor mounted, it should drive my old Lewis Shaper just fine. A plate, and connectors, as I mentioned, and I could move it from the shaper to the old woodworking Craftsman Bandsaw, and make it run that, too, for metal cutting. Final output on the shaft is 600RPM at 1/2hp. That being the only 3ph motor I have that I need to run, right now, it wouldn't make sense for me to build a large Rotary Converter for one machine.  I did get an old 3phase motor with my Heavy 10L, but it's either very old, or a couple of HP, or both, and the lathe shipped from the factory with a 3/4HP 1phase motor. It doesn't need that heavy a motor. 3phase motors have some benefits besides the power, but unless you're doing space-qualified parts you probably don't need those benefits. Though if you have a bunch of 3phase machines, and no 3phase power, that's another thing entirely.</blockquote>

Verification