Wiring up a lathe

[beejay]

I have an old lathe that would be great to have working. However the wiring is in a mess and mostly missing...

I have 3 wires heading in to the thing, red, blue and yellow. Three phase I presume?
That connects to a controller board with a bunch of relays for forward/back and fast/slow.
I then have the motor with 6 wires connected to it plus an earth. Again I presume 3-phase driving two different sets of windings for fast and slow?

At this point I'm a bit stuck as I have no 3-phase supply
Are there any options beyond using a convertor or fitting a single phase motor? A quick look into those options would suggest they're both a tad expensive.

[Adrian W]

buy a single phase motor


Just in case you didn't think I read your post, buy a single phase motor, it will be the cheapest and easiest solution



http://www.phase-a-matic.com/?gclid=CPiqnrPw75gCFQ...

Edited by Adrian W on Sunday 22 February 10:07

[SS HSV]

Even an inverter will dish out 3-phase so as mentioned above, there are plenty of single phase motors which will have the same dimensions and output shaft size that would be suitable. It is also possible to overdrive a single-phase motor if it requires faster speed/more torque etc so this is the way to go. Look at the kilowat rating on the motor plate, and find an equivalent.

You really shouldn't be playing around with three-phase. Single phase is bad enough but you stand 3 times the chance of getting a double voltage belt which = certain death.

[beejay]

SS HSV said:

You really shouldn't be playing around with three-phase. Single phase is bad enough but you stand 3 times the chance of getting a double voltage belt which = certain death.

Good point, especially with my track record with mains electric

Are motor sizes and output shaft dimensions pretty standardised?
I guess flogging the current motor would offset the cost of buying a new one