Feeding an old motor from a new inverter can give an awfull smell.

I tried it two times before buying a new motor.

Smellfree

You can get 3/4 hp and 1 hp rated known brand VFD boxes from UK based suppliers for under £100 delivered (just!). With manuals in readable English.

Look at Inverter Drive Supermarket for example **LINK** . As a very satisfied repeat customer I can testify that their reputation for good service and for taking time to sort out exactly what's best for you is well deserved. Their quick start guides are excellent and really take the mystique out of setting up.

From what I hear all the reputable UK based suppliers are a helpful bunch.

Objectively it hardly seems worth the risk of iffy quality and no service back up if it does go pop from direct import to save £45 or so. Especially as the manual is guaranteed to be incomprehensible.

No question that some of the Chinese suppliers are excellent but some still operate on the customer paid – passed QC business model knowing that the customer won't bother to spend the £20-£30 odd needed to send it back. At this range you have no way of telling good from bad.

Worth remembering that a blown inverter could take the motor down with it. Probably won't. Old school three phase induction motors are tough beasts but …

If you are spending £200 or so to save £1,000 on an inverter welder or similar then the risk is, possibly, more justified.

Clive

Well I have two hynyaung (or however you spell it) Chinese inverters running my mill for about 14 months now and they have been absolutely fine, no complaints whatsoever. The set up wasn't difficult, plenty of info available on the web to assist in 'interpreting' the manual. There was one parameter that was troublesome but with some excellent support from here I managed to sort it without any drama. For my application it was around 1/3 of the cost of using the UK based suppliers to achieve the same result going this way and as the total cost at the time was a barrier to get the machine running the longevity wasn't a major consideration. For the work the machine has done I don't consider they owe me much and even if they pack up now (which they probably will now I have written this!) I won't be overly upset. As things stand I wouldn't hesitate to go the same route again. The only caution I would sound is buying direct from China and having them ship from there, my first attempt at that didn't go well! On the second try I used a UK based seller and they were with me in three days, cost me a little more but worth it to save a 5 week sea freight delivery and import duty etc. Overall very happy!

Paul.

I have to laugh at people slagging off chinese electronics when probably 90% of electrical devices are made there. The high end Apple £1,000 phones are made in china, as well as the rest of their range. Televisions, computers etc etc. I bought two vfd's made by huan yang for the surface grinder, set up was easy and they work fine, and did not break the bank.

I recently purchased this unit **LINK** from this well known Chinese supplier. I'm a bit of a dummy with electronics but number one son is pretty good so he wired it up and it works fine. It does of course need a control pendant to make the best of it.

I fitted a pukka one from Transwave to my Myford last year and would still go that way for a similar situation, however what prompted me to try the less expensive uint was I purchased an industrial quality linisher which had a 3 phase motor so it was either buy a new single phase with a reversing switch or go the Chinese inverter route fo less money. I could not justify the price of the UK supplied units for this situation.

My feelings are its hoses for courses !

John

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If you have overshot the mark, it lets you put material back on.

MichaelG.

THAT is about the only reason I could think of – apart from when something gets jammed under a poorly set stop-bar or table! The latter being less necessary than your suggestion! I wait (without holding my breath!) for a sensible reason for the reversing option.

Main difference you get with buying British is a guarantee. I got a 4 year guarantee from Transwave when I bought mine.

Most electrical items that fail early go in the first year or two, and even the best quality items have some risk of failure.

Even if the items are identical, you have to consider what value you put one a guarantee, parts availability and customer support?

Neil