Bridgeport Series 1 inverter question

[jofriedl]

Hi,

I'm about as new as it gets when it comes to CNC. I recently purchased an old bridgeport series 1 mill which runs off Boss 5. Because my box in the basement lacks three phase, I also purchased an inverter from AC tech. The Unit is a 7.5 horse unit rated to 23 amps. I spoke with tech support this morning and was told that having external contacts to the inverter would damage the drive. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Can I simply plug my mill into the inverter or do I need three separate inverters plus a power source to run the controls? Thanks for any and all help.

John

[sdeering]

If its a rotary phase start it first check your voltages. Your made leg sould be a little high cuz once you load it it eill come down. I ran my boss 5 off of a 5hp RPC and it did fine. It was a home made one and I added capacitors till I got the votage very close to 220.
I have since removed to old control but I still use the RPC for the motor.

[jofriedl]

My inverter is a 7.5 horse, 23 amp VFD unit. From what I gather, installing contacts between your inverter and motor can damage your inverter. Simply plugging the machine into a VFD is discouraged. My question now is, how do I run my mill off 230 single phase with one VFD? I suspect that somewhere in my machine, 230 3 phase is stepped down to single phase possible. The stepper motors are DC and the controls are lower voltage single phase I am hoping. The spindle head is the only three phase motor which I could wire into the VFD. A wiring diagram for this machine would be helpful. Thanks for the response. Any and all help is appreciated.

[sdeering]

Im not really up on the VFDs but I dont think you can use them for 3 phase transformers as your mill has in it.

You would have to remove the old control and make a new one and us the VFD for the mill motor only and 110 single for the rest.

Or buy make a rotary phase converter and run the mill off of that.

[scottly]

You need a single to 3 phase converter, not a variable frequency inverter. Like sdeering, I ran my Boss 5 for years using a rotary phase converter.