Technical Only in Australia!!!

I was only wondering the other day how this was going. Well done.

 

Here's another interesting Metalmaster tool


They seem to have a bunch of fun in Australia
Mike

 

Bennet’s customs has a great channel

 

Haven’t ran it yet but
So here’s how this thing comes put together out of the crate.

The actual motor is 3 phase 220 volt (+/-) 10% 50-60 htz. However it’s 900some RPM.

There’s a VFD in a nice enclosure.
That interprets the power on off, creates variable speed with external potentiometer, a momentary foot pedal for start/stop and 2 EStop buttons and of course creates 3 phase. And programmed accordingly.

That VFD is designed and built to have input of 250 volts single phase in a Line, neutral, earth configuration. 250 volts on one wire vs North American of 2 hots achieve 220.

Of all the options, the easiest is to get a transformer to take 110 volts in our US LINE NEUTRAL GROUND configuration and boost it up to 250 volts in the design configuration.

Will be getting it from our local supplier for $320.00.

My first thought was to swap out the VFD & that was programming problems . Other options were bigger problems & more expensive & more complex solutions to a simple problem.

 

^^^^^ Interesting that a step up is made.

 

That's not the best way to do that. That will result in needing a xfmr with a primary rated for 210% of the required secondary load with the attendant larger circuit. It will be larger and probably more expensive than needed. A better choice will be a 'normal' and more common buck/boost xfmr of either a 208/240 or a 220/240 with taps to adjust voltage. The difference will now be either 20% or 10%, much closer and not requiring as large a unit. As long as there's no continuity between the neutral and chassis ground on the machine (and there shouldn't be), it'll never know the difference.

Any transformer can be 'reversed' and used both ways. Not all are suitable to do so however. Step-up xfmrs are very common in utility systems.

 

Could you please provide me a manufacturer and model number of what you’re talking about?
This is the one we’re going to try,
Maybe I miss spoke or mis understood the exact function. This one isn’t very large or expensive

 

What is your measured phase-to-phase voltage? Tool Current draw and/or recommended circuit size?

 

Also, allowable voltage tolerance? +/- 5%? 10%? I've never seen any equipment that couldn't tolerate at least 5%, most will stand up to 10%. Keep in mind that actual voltage can vary by quite a bit depending on service load as well as local utility grid load.

 

The provided cord on the thing is dinky at best. Like 16 gauge. The “machine” is tagged 250 volt 5 amps input. That goes into the supplied VFD.
The motor is also tagged separately and purposefully mounted to obstruct the tag. info isn’t “standard” like what I’m used to seeing obviously. 1.1kw 3 phase 240 +/- 10%
There’s also some motor tag information for running 380 volt ( Three eighty )

 

The small cord doesn't surprise me, the euro-spec stuff has always run the wire harder. I helped install some Dutch-sourced gear years ago and we had to change all the supplied cords/wiring out as they were too small to meet current NEC specs. I asked the tech they sent if those cables got warm, his reply was you could warm your hands on them in the winter.

The reason I ask for your measured at your panel phase-to-phase voltage is the 'nominal' voltage is rarely the same as actual. A '110' volt source could be anywhere from 107 to 117 volts to the neutral. A '120' source could be from 117 to 125 volts. This will obviously affect the high voltage output because of the ratio involved. Virtually all of the 220V to 240V xfmrs I've looked at have a 1.09% ratio (or .92% if going the other way), so with a '110V' line-to-ground of 115V, that puts your phase-to-phase voltage at 230, not 220. Multiply that by 1.09 and that gets you 250.7V. All this assumes you have a single-phase service or a Delta-connected three-phase. If you have Star-connected three phase (120/208V nominal) or particularly low phase to ground voltage on a single-phase service, a different xfmr will be needed.

Assuming a 5% +/- voltage tolerance and 220V minimum between phases, the machine should run on voltage anywhere from 237V to 262V. You may not even need a xfmr. If you do, this one or a similar unit should fill the bill...
1-Phase Buck/Boost Step-Down Transformer - 240V Primary - 220V Secondary - 22.94 Amps - 50/60Hz: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific
Less money, more capacity (5 KVA). Use a 15 or 20A two-pole breaker to feed it. I'd recommend using stranded wire, the terminals in those offshore VFDs run small and don't like solid wire.

 

After re-reading all this, I'd look into getting the instructions for the VFD and see about changing the input voltage. They're 'hiding' the extra voltage in the VFD, it should be possible to change just the input voltage without disturbing the rest of the programming.