cooksley planer help

[cerdeira]

Hi.

I've managed to buy this bit of vintage british engineering. It was a little costly to send it to Portugal but I think it was worthy since it is in very good condition for its age. It's a Cooksley BPJ planer/thicknesser and it has very small footprint for its capacity (12"x9").
The tables are just shy of 120cm and since the fence slides on a front rail it doesn't take as much space as the traditional fences with a long metal bar in the back.

Anyway I have a couple of questions about it now that I'm preparing to clean it and bring it back to work.

First I'd like to know what kind of knobs/handles would fit in the surfacing table screws. Here's a pic:

So there's a shaft (5/8" diam) with a roll pin, but the knob is missing. I thing the knob was a removable one, since it would stand in the way of thicknessing otherwise. I can of course improvise a way to turn that shaft, but does anyone know where I could source a replacement?

Other question is about electrics. This is a 3phase machine I only have 1-phase in my garage. The main motor is dual-voltage so I can run it from an inverter but the feed motor is single voltage (400V) and dual speed. The motor plate says it can output 370 W or 180 W depending on the speed. Would I damage the motor if I also feed it through the inverter at 240V 3ph? Theoretically the motor would output 370/sqrt(3)=213 W if I run it at the highest speed. Is that ok?

many thanks.

 

[fobco]

hi,they are not knobs or handles for the rise and fall,its a tube like a tommy bar with two notches to slot over the pins,hope this helps frank.

 

[cerdeira]

Hi.

its a tube like a tommy bar with two notches to slot over the pins

My idea was to use a suitable box spanner with a cut on the end that would engage in the spring pin. I wasn't too far off, but I thought there may be was a more sophisticated gizmo.

Anyone else could help me reg the feed motor issue?

TIA

 

[9fingers]

The motor needs to be run from 400 volt three phase.

It will have much reduced torque at 240 3 phase and will possibly not get up to synchronous speed and hence draw excessive current.

You need either a small converter (although this might behave strangely on a dual speed motor) or the best solution - a dedicated inverter of the type that step up the voltage as well as create 3phase.

It is quite easy to make a converter at that power but given your question I assume that you are not confident/competent with electrics (no offence intended!) so I won't lead you down that path.

Bob

See my motor write up link in the footer