3 phase problem

[forgeblast]

Just wanted to share a Doh! moment. A friend of mine wanted me to forge him a dagger/knife. He has metal from his dads workshop but its 1'' thick. The blower i currently have on my forge is good enouch for the thin stuff but i need a larger blower for this. So i ordered one, well i thought great its 125 cfm, 120 vac thats what i need. What i didnt read was 3ph. Didnt even see it, but its right there.
So my question is its a 115v 60 hz .6 amp electric motor
whats the cheapest way to go about using it on a standard household current. I was thinking an inverter? any suggestions, besides getting my eyeglass prescripion upgraded. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
thanks in advance
forgeblast

 

[chim]

The info you provided isn't clear to me. Please have a look at it and verify. You said the motor is 3 phase, but also said 120V / 0.6A. If the CFM is correct, I wouldn't suspect a 3 phase motor is needed. I'm missing something..............chim

 

[CT_Tree_Guy]

forgeblast, something also sounds not quite right about this. Most (all?) 3PH stuff I've seen is either 200V, 208-230V, or 460V, (and is there a 600-something volt?), but never 115 volt. It takes just one "leg" from your main panel to get 115 volts (speaking very generally here), so I have to believe that motor is single phase. A picture of the faceplate from that motor would be very interesting to see.

And it is IS 3PH, I wouldn't bother with a converter. They are fairly expensive, and defeat the efficiency that is gained by running a 3PH motor on real 3PH power. Best just to return the motor and get a single phase.

As always - if I'm "all wet", please forgive me. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif


John

 

[bobodu]

I get enough heat just from the draft on my wood stove to get near weld heat!! Very bright yellow on 1" round.
Have you tried your trusty shop vac?

 

[heehaw]

if you don't exchange your blower, and really want to try to use 3ph: i'll look around and find the article i have that explains all that stuff: you can us some capacitors to change the phase of one leg or another motor in series, i've seen it done a lot, because used 3ph motors are usually really cheap compared to single phase...
heehaw

 

[Farwell]

If in fact the motor is a 3 phase motor it would be cheaper to replace the motor than to purchase or build a phase converter. Go on line to the Grainger site and try to find a 115 volt motor of the same horse power that will replace the existing motor. If you can not purchase from Grainger take the information to a local supply house and have them get one for you. Or, as someone else wrote, try a shop vac to see if it will do what you need.
Farwell

 

[SPIKER]

Hi there:

like others said, 3 phase is 240 vac or 480 vac, not 120 vac. 120 is single phase. now that you have it if it IS a 3 phase then you can buy a Frequency Drive which will run on 220 vac single phase and provide 240 vac 3 phase. redily available but slightly expensive, in the $200 plus range.. for smaller applications.

there are some small fractional HP motors which can be controlled using different hook ups caps & inductors to provide a offset frequency... that said it is not somethign for a novice suer to be albe to setup. best bet is to get standard single phase motor & retor fit or send it back to et the right one.


mark M

 

[bher]

Get a variable frequency drive. Should be able to find one pretty cheap on Ebay. This will also also you to control the speed too--very handy.

 

[forgeblast]

I wish i could return it, i made some modifications to the blower before i messed with trying to put a plug on it. So at this point its mine. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif The blower i have works fine like i said for small stuff and the noise level is perfect, the shop vac would drive me crazy with all the noise it puts out. I used a vaccum cleaner motor to melt aluminum in college, we did some styrofoam vaporization casting. I have bid on a inverter on ebay and the variable frequency drive looks like a winner too if i dont win the inverter. As for the motor i will write down everthing thats on it when i get home from work. I do know that the power wire coloring that comes off of the blower is UK.
Thanks for all the help,
forgeblast

 

[billbill1]

Mark, I had a 3phase 115v motor on a conveyor where I used to work. I had never heard of such a thing until I saw it. We ran it with an inverter that was 480 primary and 115V 3-phase secondary. It sounds weird but it's out there.