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1ph-to-3ph Conversion: Is a higher power motor necessary? (And other questions)

Hope you all had a happy new year. Thanks for the discussion. Ultimately, based on some of your comments, it still seems that a VFD solution would work well, but in terms of cost/benefit, I'm not so sure anymore. If I did a VFD conversion, I'd likely go the full nine, that seemingly could get very expensive very quickly. I paid $150 for the drill press, and I could easily dump $500 into it with a VFD conversion. Hmm.

After re-examining the W-T belt swap procedure, it's actually way less "risky" (in terms of damaging a pulley) than I was thinking. The only other drill press I've ever had the pleasure(?) to change belts on was my dad's small 1980's 1/4HP drill press which used a spring tensioner. To swap the pulley, you had to physically pull on the motor while grappling with the belt. (At least, that was the only way I could figure how to do it.) For the W-T press, once the set screw (bolt) is loose, tension is 100% relieved, and there's no need to do any heavy-handed grappling.

Thanks for the video links. I had in fact already watched two of those. In assessing the amount of effort it would be to fabricate my own slow-speed attachment (replica of the OEM W-T attachment), I figured a VFD conversion would be just as much work, but with more flexibility. Then, down the VFD rabbit hole I went.

But, as I look into it more, seems like the non W-T solutions (the ones which sit into column) are much easier to fabricate, at least for a beginner with relatively few tools.

And Jim, I live in Northern NJ, and my workplace is about a mile south of the NY state line in Bergen county.

Thanks!
 
OK, good - I'm down in closter each weekend, let's set up a place and time to meet, I'll give you the WT part.

Thanks, Jim. That means a lot, although I feel quite undeserving. (You could get much better money on eBay!);)
 
Fuck ebay, I gave up on those guys after the paypal stuff. I'll never use it, you could.

Thanks. I certainly would use it. Did you see my private message, by chance? No messages appear in my sent folder. Not sure what's up with that.
 
Probably best to take this to email. Give me a shout at jrr0 (at) us (dot) ibm (dot) com.

That's a zero in the address, not an 'oh.'

Jim
 








 
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