Single Phase light on 3 phase machine?
Hi all,
Firstly I know I will need to get an electrician to do anything electrical, so this is not a how do I do it question, but a is it possible with what I have?
I have 3 phase power in the garage, and several old machines. For my scrollsaw I have a 240 V light that I have mounted to the shaft and plug into a 240v single phase power point, and I was thinking of doing the same for my drill press (ideally I would like to go with the lights incorporated into the machine, but at the moment both are wired with 3 core and earth).
Recently I got an old metal cutting vertical bandsaw (which is a to do project waiting in a corner), which I noticed has a light attached, and I have assumed for the last few months that it worked due to the fact that it was a 5 pin plug (I have always thought that 240 single phase stuff was run on 3 phase by wiring in one of the phases and the neutral wire, needing a 5 pin plug).
Today I noticed that the plug on the end is actually only 4 pin:confuzzled:, so now I am wondering am I wrong? I have not run the bandsaw, so I have no idea if it works yet or if the light is still connected, but it looks like a standard bayonet fitting. My understanding was phase to phase is 415 odd volts, earth to phase is 240 odd volts (and even I know phase to earth is a big no no). So do I have a machine that either has had the light disconnected and gone back to 4 pin, a machine that someone has connected the light fitting from phase to earth, or is there another option that gets a 240v single phase light working on 3 phase with only the 4 pins?
To be honest I could care less about the metal cutting bandsaw, but if I can get the scrollsaw and the drill press set up so that they can run a light while not having to go to the expense of upgrading the socket to 5 pin and the plugs to 5 pin, and run 4 core and earth, that would be great.
So in short, am I incorrect about needing 5 pins to run a single phase light on 3 phase machine, or do I need to add another 240v single phase light to my drill press if I don't add neutral?
Cheers,
Camo
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