What have I purchased?

[vacpress]

(insert sheepish grin)

so, impulsively i purchased this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

i am hoping it will give me graduated speed control of an AC spindle motor... However, I am not able to find much info(well, any) about this thing...

anyone know what it is all about? will it run on 1-phase?

[Al_The_Man]

Well for $15.00 you havent lost much and there is not much to lose by trying it.
The fact that nothing shows up on the Toshiba site, gives me the impression it is an older style unit. Also Toshiba used to have two ratings 200v and 230, with 10% tolerance on that, so you may be pushing it if your supply measures 240v.
At that size, ~1/3hp, I would imagine it will take single phase ok.
Again there is not too much to lose.
It is worth a check before hand on availability of manuals etc when buying on ebay as some stuff is legacy equipment, even though new.
Don't forget, this will be three phase out.
Al.

[vacpress]

ah, it will certainly be 3-phase out?

what a border-line useless thing ive purchased!! (hooray)

i did search quite a bit before actually purchasing the thing... but all i found was references to repair, etc... it seems that this device is from around 1992ish... i was hoping it could be 'the fanciest dremel drive around' or something of the sort...

al, you are right though, for $23 shipped, it will be an interesting thing to have around and experiment with...

i will probably destroy it... my first attempt will most certainly be to power it with 120v 1-phase, to see what happens..

so, 400watts is about 1/3HP? what happens if i hook it to a smaller\larger motor?

thanks for the quick reply...

[Al_The_Man]

Smaller motors OK, bigger may go into current O/L.
Probabally a good source of large caps though!
Al.

[vacpress]

'source of large caps' -

you mean if i take it apart? ha. i would rather hold onto it.. i have been building a vacuum former, this could probably power the squirell cage cooler fan...

what about running 2 motors off of one of these guys? (smaller motors)

again, thanks for the advice..

[Al_The_Man]

Most will accept 2 motors as long as the wattage is not exceeded.
Al.

[lazyscotsman]

If it's three phase run three motors on different phases!

[vacpress]

dare i ask what happens when someone tries to run a regular single phase motor on a 3-phase VFD? (for example, a small drill press 1/4-1/3 HP)

[Al_The_Man]

It would depend on what type of motor, drill presses tend to have split/phase induction motors, in that case it you would have to set it for 60hz (or 50Hz) output, but it may not like the unbalance on the other phase. Also it would have to be 200/220v rated, and NO speed variation. So there would be no advantage.
Al.