MODIFY BRUSH HOG SOME MORE

[patrick_g]

However, I don't have the power converter to be able to run it, so it just gets to sit there looking green. Maybe one of these days...
David from jax

David, There is a guy in Arizona (Wickenburg, I think) that sells converters to run machines on 3 phase power for pretty decent prices...

Here is a couple sources:

3 Phase Converter Info- Sales- rotary phase converter, static 3 phase rotary converters.
Phase-A-Matic Phase Converter, Rotary Phase Converter, Static Phase Converter and CNC Phase Converter

There are instructions available for DIY using an electric motor but...

Pat

 

[GuglioLS]

Rob,
The universal mounting design looks..............well it looks universal , so good job on engineering that feature into your design.
I like the primer and paint job as it adds the finishing touches to another superb project.

Larry, I added this video especially for you. It's using a fly cutter to mill a large surface down without having to take too many passes back and forth. My mill is moving at 40" a minute. That is a 2" wide bar in the vise, 14" long. I wish the lighting was better, but I was getting bombed by chips

Thanks for thinking of me and rubbing that in I would have to run my mill at 4" per minute and make several passes on that job. I need to get me one of those fly cutters, I was also thinking of getting me a set of 246 blocks. Enco has a set for 79 which includes a "free" set of 123 Joe blocks, is that a good deal?
Oh and dodging the chips LOL I see when you were taking the video you were trying to get away from them, HaHaHa. After all these years you would think you would have found the right place to stand so that they would not fly straight at you all the time
All the weight of that steel is going to be beneficial for the Box blade and landscape rake for even better ground engagement, that should work out quite well.
Are we going to see it all completed after the next trip out to camp?
Larry

 

[sandman2234]

Thanks patrick_g ,
I have pretty much seen most of the converters that will run my machine, and almost ordered one last April. Luckily I decided to put it off, as that $3,000.00 has come in handy over the last five months of unemployment. My machine requires a minimun of 15 hp, and really should have a 20hp CNC unit to run it. I have 2 small converters running right now, but the cost of the larger unit just keeps getting higher. At one time I could get a "Phase Perfect" unit for what these are selling for. One day I am going to have to bite the bullet and just do it.
Rob,
I understand what you mean about getting bombed by chips. A flycutter will throw chips halfway across my garage if they don't bounce off me, and they are usually hot enough to burn their way into any exposed skin you have.
David from jax

 

[patrick_g]

Thanks patrick_g ,
I have pretty much seen most of the converters that will run my machine, and almost ordered one last April. Luckily I decided to put it off, as that $3,000.00 has come in handy over the last five months of unemployment. My machine requires a minimun of 15 hp, and really should have a 20hp CNC unit to run it.

Oh, David, I didn't know you needed that much converter. Could you get your utility to deliver 3 phase without charging more for the setup than the converter would cost? You could then sell the smaller converters to partially recoup.

Hope you get hooked up to a money stream soon.

Pat

 

[sandman2234]

The only thing that they would do if I requested 3phase incoming power (already did that) was report me to the zoning board for running a business in a residential neighborhood. Luckily the garage was almost empty when they wondered out, looking around. I happened to be home and looked out when the dogs started barking. Since there weren't any machines in the garage yet, I opened it up, and showed the guy the garage with nothing in it but my '66 Chevy. He asked why I wanted 3 phase, and I told him to run some of my hobby equipment. He didn't ask anymore and I didn't offer any more. Very few people have as much 3 phase equipment and only use it for hobby stuff.
They were nice enough to run a separate power source in so I didn't have to spend as much money when I rewired my garage. Now I have 200 amps of single phase in the garage compared to the 150 in the house that I would have had to upgrade to get enough to run the garage and the house.
David from jax

 

[MJPetersen]

David, Too bad it is not like here. We have 3 phase to almost every house. It is standard. I think that I have 35 amp 3phase to my house. 3x220 volts or between legs 380 volts. I saved up and bought a Mig welder and it is 3 phase only. But I do not have any of the fancy machines that you have to run on that 3 phase power.

Take care and I hope that you find work soon.

Rob, I love to watch you do some machining work. It is hard to believe that it is taking that much material off that quickly. WOW. I was just thinking to myself--"I wonder how many thin kerf cutting discs or grinding disks would it take for me to cut that material off? Not to mention the time involved and the end result would not so pretty or nearly so accurate as what you do. That is what I would have to do in my primitive machine shop. Thanks!!

Mike

 

[scott_vt]

Must be nice to have power feed on the X axis (or any of them for that matter). My 2J machine isn't equiped with such luxury devices.
I do have a Maho with those fancy powerfeed features including Digital Readouts on all three axis, Cat40, universal milling from Vertical and Horizontal heads along with a removable horizontal table, leaving a vertical table in it's place. However, I don't have the power converter to be able to run it, so it just gets to sit there looking green. Maybe one of these days...
David from jax

Mornin David,
We used to have two Maho machines in our modelshop, on numerous occassions I ran the 3 axis machine. One of my buddies and I also ran our 5 axis, and some how managed to use all 5 axis', that was when we were programming manually before we had MasterCam ! They are a beautiful machine and very accurate !!!

 

[tommu56]

For you guys with three phase equipment
These drives run in 1 phase and make 3 phase and I'm sure there more efficient than a rotary converter.

Lenze-ACTech SMVector Series

these are not as precise but will work to

Lenze-ACTech SCM & SCL Series

we use some of the ESV751N01SXB one horse power ones 115 to 230 v when we retrofit our press from dc to ac

Rob I didn't think about it did you have the solar guys run 3 phase from the inverters to your shop they can stack three outback invertors to get it?

tom

 

[sandman2234]

Money is what is stopping me from running my Maho, so I just keep the other machines running on what power I do have. Here are a few pictures of it. Enjoy!!









I just noticed I didn't have a picture of the left side of the machine, where the track is that the vertical head runs down to get out of the way when you want to use the horizontal spindle. The bed pictured separate (and very blurred)from the machine is the horizontal bed that can be removed. Current picture of the machine shows with it removed, which is something you can't do with my Bridgeport, lol!
David from jax

 

[3RRL]

Tom,
No, only single phase 220V.
My solar contractor told me the inverters I have are not for 3 phase. Was he BS'ing me?

I have a 10hp rotary 3 phase converter I will use, like I do here at home.

One thing I found when I used cheap solid state converters is that when I turned the mills or lathes on and turned the switch to reverse the motor, it would keep running in the same direction.

This is not good for power tapping or when you can't get your lathe out of the half nut in time and you want to throw it in reverse in desperation to keep the carriage or tool post from crashing into your chuck. I have done both and am the proud owner of a piece of steel with a friction welded tap stuck in it. Lucky for me it started to spin in my brand new Albrecht keyless drill chuck and wiped out the jaws in it. And I also had a lathe chuck that looks like I used a battle axe to shape the front of it. It helps to have a lathe with a foot brake on it when using those kinds of inverters. Perhaps if those links are for Digital solid state they are better than the ones I used to have.

Not only that, using the cheap solid state converters, it was noticeable that I lost some hp using them. With the rotary converter sized to your machinery, it acts exactly like regular 3 phase. I don't lose any hp and I can reverse the motors in the snap of a finger. I'm not sure about the ones in the links you posted because they look pretty expensive, but you might want to check that out first.

I got my rotary converter from American Rotary Phase Converters.
Phase Converters > Complete Phase Converters from American Rotary - GENTEC Phase Converters from American Rotary

 

[tommu56]

Rob I think youhace outback invertors don't you?

A qutoe from thier web page
-Phase Stacking - More power for three-phase loads
Three inverter/chargers can be configured to provide 120/208 VAC or 230/400VAC four wire 展ye/Star three-phase AC Power. An nverter/charger is used to power each of the three legs for 3-phase AC power. The loads on each of the inverters does not need to be kept balanced, each phase is independently voltage regulated.

You would have to add one invertor and change the maby change the hub connedted to the invertors and the mate display

120-208 star arraingment would work on most machines that can be wired for 220 and you still have 120 for normal loads.

Your rotary comvertor will use alot of juce while machinery is off
tom

 

[3RRL]

Interesting information Tom,
I will look into it more. You're right about the rotary converter using power. It is a 3 phase 10 hp motor after all. I could do this for the shop only then.
Thanks,

 

[sandman2234]

As sweet as having an inverter is, they very much like being dedicated to a single motor, and my Maho has several motors on it, plus the electronics of the controler. If it were as simple as hooking up an inverter to it, I would already be making chips with it, as I have a spare inverter still new in the box sitting about 5 feet from the Maho. From what I can tell, Phase Perfect is the best way to go, but American Rotary is probably how I will end up, as they sell a good product for a reasonable price.
They do make 3 phase solar panels, but you go with what you have. I would think a dedicated 3 phase generator would have been in 3RRL's toolbox, which would allow him to run most anything he wanted, plus provide backup for the house when the solar didn't keep up. Running it during times when he needed to run the shop equipment might be a little expensive considering how much machining he does, but might work for the 1 or 2 machines that draw too much power to run from the batteries.
I have two 3 phase 5kw(continous) generators that have various problems besides being way too old that produced almost all the normal voltages that we usually discuss, like 120, 208, 220, in single and 3 phase. They have been sitting out back for longer than I can remember, so probably need to go to the scrapyard, but I keep hoping somebody will want to play with them and get them running/generating. Bottom line, they do make them, especially in Government Surplus, which is where mine came from.
David from jax

 

[sandman2234]

I was under the impression that inverters had to be tuned to each motor that it was running, and changes in motors would require it to be re-tuned. That is why most people dedicate an inverter to a single motor, and why they don't run multiple machines off one inverter, due to the load changes as one motor shuts off, or is added online while the other is running.
David from jax

 

[tommu56]

Sandman you are correct about the "drive type invertors" they are motor spifice.

Rob has a out back solar system and you can stack 3 invertors on the dc side and get 120-208 v 3 phase out the ac side

Rob on page 22 of my manual it shows the 3phase hookup

tom

 

[3RRL]

Tom,
I'm going up this weekend to do a number of things like work on my rotary cutter wheel mounts, hydraulic winch mounts, take photos of the log home etc. I have the solar manual there and will look for how to do it. It would be great to have 3 phase, especially after hearing from my solar guy we couldn't have it.
Thanks for all the research.

BTW, I am currently machining the receiver mounts at home. I didn't think to post photos of it, since it's pretty boring. But when I get them to the point where the dog leg receiver is welded up, I'll post some pictures of that.
I also ordered a couple extra hydraulic hoses from Agri Supply for the other implement hook ups, since I robbed this project for the hydraulic winch one. So I am still working on it.

 

[patrick_g]

They do make 3 phase solar panels, but you go with what you have.
David from jax

Maybe you'll have to take me to school a bit. Just what is a three phase solar panel?

Solar panels are DC and have no "PHASE." If you store the energy in a battery or alternatively have a really huge array of solar panels you might run a three phase inverter or system of interconnected inverters to produce three phase power to run your machines but the solar panels themselves have no phase as they are DC.

Pat

 

[sandman2234]

I was hoping I could slide that one past everyone and just have 3RRL wondering if he had bought the wrong panels. Oh well, busted again!!
David from jax

 

[tommu56]

Rob if this is your shop invertor panel

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i106/rliefveld/Solar%20Power%20Shed/SOLAR%20COMPONENTS/th_OutbackHouseShop.jpg

(stolen from your solar project thread)
you would need one more invertor and some wiring.

and a three phase panel in the shop.

tom

 

[3RRL]

Hmmm, well maybe that's what the contractor meant when he said no three phase with this set up.
There's four on the left panel and two on the right one. That right panel is for the shop and the left one is for the house. I think I have six altogether, right?