Thread: VFD and 3 phase conversion of my 45 size gear head mill

That magic smoke gets all of us, just last week my son (auto elec) installed a reverse camera on his car, he bought the camera separate to fit the space and the Chines not only don't supply diagrams, but decided to put the black wire as positive and the red as negative. That thing stunk out the shed for days, LOL

It's a hobby like you say and it's all about the journey not the end product (though that part isn't bad, LOL)

I would like to fit one of these, so watching with interest.

Dave

Hi Simon,
I'm just wondering where your VFD will be housed? Will it be part of the control box or somewhere else? I'm just wondering where the best place for it is, since we shouldn't need to touch them unless they overload.

Simon,
there is a very good chance you will regret your expense for the halogen light.... sorry. They give off far too much heat and you WILL burn yourself on it eventually.
After trying my first one on my Douglas shaper, I can only recommend LED (Cree) lighting for machine tools. Starting with 9W and going as high as 15W for big machine lighting. More than that is too bright.
I believe you can get 24V LED Cree lights, but I've chosen 240V (each light with it's own LED driver in the socket. Much simpler to wire up and no seperate power supplies.
Incidentally, if you chose 2 lights and put them in series, then you can use 12V lights on a 24V supply.
Almost no heat is generated, they seem to be very vibration resistant and soem are completely liquid proof.
Available for domestic lighting and vehicle lighting these days.

Hi Ueee & Joe,

WRT the mounting of the VFD, nothing really ground breaking with my setup, I just screwed it to the wall behind the mill. Up high so there was no chance of swarf getting in there.

It wouldn't fit in the relay box and besides if I did that then I'd have to organise some ventilation for it's cooling. Just easier to plonk it on the wall!

Joe, I do regret paying the extra money for the halogen light when I ordered it. But I am in the process of changing it to LED with the other changes I'm currently making. I need 12V for the tacho anyway so I have purchased a small 12V 2A power supply which should be just enough for a couple of 9W LED lights and power the 100 - 200 mA the tacho needs.

I agree about LED lighting, no heat, good light and you don't need to run heavy wiring, the LED lights will be powered through normal cat5 cable.

I just have not decided on a housing or what type of light to get yet. Nothing has jumped out at me yet. I may even just go with a gimble and place it in a jiffy box or something, Dunno.

Cheers,

Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

I agree about LED lighting, no heat, good light ...

Simon, I think you'll find a 9W LED will get quite warm, maybe even hot, depending on the heatsink. I replaced a couple of halogen downlights with 10W LEDs in the kitchen. The LEDs have huge heatsinks but they are still too hot to touch. Nowhere near as hot as a halogen of course.

LEDs may fail if housed in a jiffy box with no ventilation.

Chris

Hi Chris, thanks for the info. This product has also caught my eye. Found it this morning:

48 SMD White LED Light Panel T10 Festoon Ba9s Dome 12V | eBay

Perhaps 3 or so of these tucked up inside the head looking down?

On another note,

I have gerry rigged up my control panel to the VFD and the internal limit switches to check (1) my wiring and (2) my design.

I can report a 100% success! The forward/reverse and run button work beautifully as does the stop and emergency stop. The forward and reverse jog buttons also work rather nicely, with job set at 3Hz, it sends the spindle spinning at about 30 rpm (gear setting H2) AND...... drum roll:

The limit switches for the tapping function work a treat. When the quill reaches an adjusted pre-determined depth, the lower micro switch hits reverse, backs out the tap and when it springs back to the top, the upper micro switch hits the stop button.

I have never really wanted to use the tapping function, tapping at 80 rpm through the reduction gearbox with a 2HP motor geared from 1500rpm to 80rpm does not excite me!

Now I can set the mill to about 5 -10Hz and let it tap at a much reduced power AND speed. I'll be keen to test it out.

I also moved my quill depth readout, it is now housed inside the head and pokes out through a hole cut through the front panel. Originally I had it on the front but it meant I could not use the tapping function as I had to remove the adjustable depth stop. Not an issue before as I was not interested in using the tapping function.

OK, so it all works, now I just have to permanently wire it in and connect it all up. I'm still yet to work out how to filter the noise coming from the VFD and going into the 12V dc power supply. The noise causes erratic readings on the tacho. I mentioned this in the Mars lathe DC conversion thread.

My email is playing up, I'll post some pics from my phone later today.

Cheers,

Simon

OK. Here are some pics. Nothing much to see yet.

First is a pic behind the front panel showing the quill DRO, limit switches (standard anyway) and also threw in a quill lube point as an add on to the one shot lube system. Next pic is with front panel and the third is the birds nest wiring job.

Hopefully tomorrow it may be in a more substantial set up. Also sorry about the photo orientation, I seem to struggle a bit with that when done from my phone! Just turn your PC on it's side




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Hi all,

Well my VFD mill conversion project nears to a close!

It has all been hard wired in and all works. Just some minor house keeping issues to tidy up, including a couple of reverse bias diodes on the relays that switch the one shot lubrication system and the coolant pump so they don't send spikes back into the 12V power supply and the tacho. Oh and a light. I have ordered a 12V 10W frosted LED downlight from an ebay seller in Moorrabbin. I will fit this to the existing light fitting which has been modified. I have cut the gooseneck length in half so it will be a lot more steady and not creep under it's own weight. The light should work out well, the frosting (lens) gives a flood beam of 90 degrees and about 500 lumens of light. You can see the gooseneck hanging in the breeze just below the switch panel.

Can't believe how smooth the POT and speed response is. I'm very happy with the whole system. Probably the only thing I will add/change soon will be to have an on/off/on switch for the coolant system, similar to Ueee's so that I have the option of the coolant pump coming on with the motor. I'm yet to use coolant so it's not a big issue ATM.

Anyone thinking of introducing variable speed (VFD or DC motor) to their mill or lathe, I highly recommend it as a fun project that makes your machine so much more useable.

All I have to do now is finish the induction sensor bracket, ATM it's held on with some tape!

Here's a pic:

Cheers,

Simon

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Well that sure came together well.
I havent even finished my taco yet!(havent even unlicked the shed for three days now)
Good going Simon.

Stuart

Thanks Stuart,

Are you kidding?! You're very prolific with your projects. I take what seems to be forever to complete basic "bread and butter" projects! Stuff that takes me weeks and weeks, guys like you seem to do in an afternoon....


Oh well, it's not a race I guees.


Next cab off the rank, my lathe. I have the motor pretty much rewired and ready to go. Should be a fair bit easier than the mill. I don't think I'll bother making a thread out of it, it's pretty much been covered by others. It's quite timley too because to late I have had to start my lathe by turining the chuck by hand. I'm not sure why, at first I thought i may be the start cap but its the same in forward AND reverse. What are the chances of blowing both starter caps at the same time?

Simon

Hi Simon,

Thanks, I start many......now and again I finish one

I think you'll find its the same cap, two cap motors have a start cap and a run cap.
I cant even pretend to understand motors

Stuart

A start cap and a run cap? How does that work? Get this. The single phase motor i replaced on my mill has 2 caps AND after taking it apart, i discovered it has a centrifugal start circuit too! To quote Pauline:Please explain! Simon

Hi Simon,

the centrifigal switch cuts out the start capacitor once the motor is up to speed.

Lex.

Looks good Simon

If you think variable speed is good on the mill then wait till you have it on the lathe..... its awsome!

I do think the speed response "smoothness" is better with the VFD than DC, but i miss the DC's braking.

As for the light, i think 500lm might not be enough, i use an 18w CFL at the moment, i think it puts out over 1000lm and it could still be brighter (although my eyes arn't great in low light, to much polyurethane spraying)