Cheapish three phase

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parvum

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Hello all

I have been struggling with arranging a three phase supply for an elderly but lovely Wadkin BZL wood lathe. I have read and seen all manner of methods some merely expensive and complex and some obviously potentially lethal.After much agonising I decided to have a go at making my own, following as ever, the wisdom of others. May I recommend John Cox's book Electric Motors in the home workshop ISBN 1-85486-133-6. The instructions therein were crystal clear , including a concise step by step route to convert my 415V star wound motor to 220V delta,. The circuit diagram for the converter is easy to follow, even for a two wire electrician like me. The list of components was easily translated (some of the part numbers are now superseded) by helpful staff at my local Maplins and for an aggregate cost of about £60.00,(The 90 micro farad start cap had to be made up from a triplet of 30 micro farad caps which hiked the cost.)

I went off with all the components to build the converter. Even after checking and rechecking all connections this assembly only took an hour or so followed by, frabjous joy ,the motor runs at the right rpm and in the right direction (this is however very easy to reverse, should it be necessary).

I have no connection with the author or his estate and simply pass on this information in the hope that it might benefit other frustrated machine tool tinkerers.
 
I agree with what you say about Jim Cox's method.
About 3 years ago, I successfully converted a 3 phase Wadkin AGS10 table saw to run on single phase 240V and it has been running well since.
 
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