Rich Aldrich
Member
- Messages
- 296
- Location
- Manistique, Michigan
I am considering a lathe and of course going through the whole gamet of research. I started thinking....
One of the issues with the Griz and ShopFox lathes is that the low end speed is not low enough. Even on the Nova 1624-44 or Jet 1442, variable speed would be nice.
At the paper mill where I work, we are installing a lot of ABB variable speed drives on equipment. These are 3 phase, 460V. I asked one of our electrical engineers if ABB makes a single phase variable speed 110V. He checked into it. ABB makes single phase, 220V in 1 HP, 2 HP and 3 HP. The price for a 2 HP is about $170 and a reostat for about $12. If you had a tach on the lathe, you could get a digital controller instead of a reostat. I think, no guarrantees, one of these drives would work on a lathe as long as the motor can be rewired for 220V.
Ideally, the motor should be rated for variable speed, but we have not had much trouble with motors with variable speed drives. Most of ours are not rated for variable speed drives.
The drive has the capability of spinning backwards and can run the motor a bit overspeed.
Any thoughts?
One of the issues with the Griz and ShopFox lathes is that the low end speed is not low enough. Even on the Nova 1624-44 or Jet 1442, variable speed would be nice.
At the paper mill where I work, we are installing a lot of ABB variable speed drives on equipment. These are 3 phase, 460V. I asked one of our electrical engineers if ABB makes a single phase variable speed 110V. He checked into it. ABB makes single phase, 220V in 1 HP, 2 HP and 3 HP. The price for a 2 HP is about $170 and a reostat for about $12. If you had a tach on the lathe, you could get a digital controller instead of a reostat. I think, no guarrantees, one of these drives would work on a lathe as long as the motor can be rewired for 220V.
Ideally, the motor should be rated for variable speed, but we have not had much trouble with motors with variable speed drives. Most of ours are not rated for variable speed drives.
The drive has the capability of spinning backwards and can run the motor a bit overspeed.
Any thoughts?
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