Converting Mill to 220V 3 phase

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Converting my Chester Eagle 30 Mill to 3 phase inverter drive

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

I received my copy of the latest ME today. I read with interest Chris Hazel's account of the conversion of his Warco Mill to 220V 3 phase.

I have decided to do the same with my Chester Eagle 30 Mill. The WEG inverter and motor described in the article have lead times of upwards of 6 weeks. Accordingly, I have ordered a TECO E2 201 H1F 0.75kW inverter and a TECA 4 pole 1500 RPM 3 phase motor.

I will write up the conversion here.

Carl.

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Carl,

 

I converted my Eagle 30 to three phase…

I used a 1.1kw motor to replace the existing one which was 1.5hp…Rather than spend £150 plus on the Teco vfd which is only rated for 0.75kw I opted for a 1.5kw unit from Ebay which although isnt a Teco/Imo drive, is more than man enough for the job…and a fraction of the price.

 

Good luck with the conversion, it certainly is well worth it. I can run mine on the third step of the pulleys and go from zero to approx 2300 rpm at the turn of a knob ( oooeerrrr Mrs Jones!)

Edited By John Rudd on 09/12/2013 18:26:30

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Hi John,

Thanks for the information. The TECO drive I got was £117. I don't know when the WEG unit that Chris used was £70 plus VAT because it isn't now.

Carl.

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Hello,

Electric motor arrived today. Not received the inverter yet as it is being sent direct from the manufacturer.

I can get on with making an adaptor bush for the motor pulley group whilst I'm waiting.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Looks like you can pick up teh same WEG or WEG  for £78 + VAT so not much of an increase

Edited By JasonB on 12/12/2013 17:16:43

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Hi,

Thanks for the info, I missed that first time round. Always the same, as soon as you buy something, you find it cheaper somewhere else!

[john fletcher 1Participant @johnfletcher1]

Why do people buy a new motor when fitting an inverter as most all three motors are easily altered in the terminal box from star to delta. The motor manufactures usually stick a label under the terminal box lid explaining what to do. The WEG inverter appears to be value for money, and by the way make your own remote if needed. Down load the manual and the details are usually there. The control circuit is low voltage so switches etc can be bought from Maplin, RS, Farnell and other component supplier and the speed pot should be LINEAR.Best of luck Ted

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Hello,

Single phase cap start/cap run motor hence will not work on the variable frequency three phase output of the inverter.

Many thanks for taking the time out to post. Hopefully the inverter should be here in the next few days.

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

I have a WEG CFW10 inverter as well. Amazing box of tricks for the price. The only one small drawback is speed change is done with up and down buttons (as is every operation) rather than say a rotary knob.

You can also increase the torque setting at lower revs to avoid it stalling when cutting at low speed.

I know WEG well as we use a lot of their motors on the industrial fans the company I work for manufacture.

WEG are a Brazilian company with a solid worldwide reputation so expect it to last me a good few years.

I did find out one thing recently, I had occasion to check the voltage reading and it only read 173 volts.

Checked with WEG at work and they advised to go into parameter 145 and change factory setting Hz from 60 to 50, volts now reads 227. It did not matter really as the volts output was correct, it just did not read correctly, but thought it worth a mention in case any one else was pondering on whether they might have a problem.

I assume most people need buy a new motor as the original was a single phase, it needs to be a 3 phase dual voltage of course, most small industrial motors are dual voltage as standard, can't remember the actual cut off but it is about 4 kw or so.

Bill D.

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Hello Bill,

Thanks for the info. It is a TECO inverter I have bought. An external speed control pot can be wired in, as it can be with the WEG, if you check your manual it should show you how to set this up in both hardware and software.

You are quite correct about the motor, my mill has a cap start/cap run single phase unit so that is why I obtained a three phase one.

I know what you mean about inverters. One of my responsibilities at work is to look after two large high speed winches. They each have two AC locomotive traction motors driven from huge Siemens inverters. Quite something.

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Greetings all,

I haven't written much on my Mill/Drill 3 phase conversion recently. This is because I was using the unit to complete a task. I have now made a start and I include some photographs below.

The first task was to remove the existing single phase motor. After electrically disconnecting the motor at the junction box on the left hand side of the mill/drill head, I found it convenient to remove the motor complete with it's mounting plate. This entailed the removal of the mounting plate upper and lower pivot screws. This method of mounting allows for tensioning of the drive belt.

Here is the motor and mounting plate as removed:-

The next job was to remove the pulley. The two retaining M6 grub screws were removed first. The pulley was a good fit on the shaft as would be expected. There is an 8mm bore in the end of the pulley; I opened this out to 8.5mm and tapped to M10. I was then able to use a long M10 bolt to jack the pulley off the shaft. The application of heat from a hot air gun assisted with this operation:-

Here is the pulley and key as removed:-

Other tasks have to take precedence now but I will add more to this thread as I progress the conversion.

Carl.

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Hello all,

Quick update…the conversion has stalled a little as the motor I ordered arrived damaged! I have written about this elsewhere on this site.

Carl.

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