The Shop > Tools

3 Phase Motor Starters

(1/6) > >>

RussellT:
I have a friend who has a lathe which he inherited from a family business.  It's labelled as a Churchill Redman 12 inch lathe but it looks as though it would swing more than that - maybe as much as 18 inches.

It's been sat in an outbuilding for about 20 years and he hasn't got around to connecting it up.  There's a 3 phase supply in the building and he's recently had some fixed wiring done so there is now a connection box right next to the lathe.

He asked me if I'd connect it up so I went to have a look.  Connecting it looks straightforward.  The cables were cut when it was taken out so it's easy to see where it should be connected.  It appears that the earth connection might have been the flexible metal conduit.

However I was having a look to see what the rest of the wiring looked like and I have a question about the motor starter.

The starter is a cast iron object about 6 inches square and about 9 inches deep with what appears to be a detachable sump and a lid secured by 3 nuts.  The lid is cracked and it's full of oil.  It was made by a company called Ellison It's similar in appearance to the ones in the attached picture.

It looks as though there's a good chance it will work if I connect it up but I was wondering about the safety of this type of contactor.  Am I right in thinking that it's likely to be full of PCBs?

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions please?

Russell

awemawson:
Russell I cant open your picture as I'm on my iPad but is it possible that it is a 'star / delta' starter, and the oil is part of the delay from star to delta? I have an ancient starter on my big Shaper that uses star/delta to initially accelerate the motor but the delay there is a human one as its manual!

buffalow bill:
Russel, I cannot open your pic. but it sounds like the starter may have been immersed in oil, it could be a DOL starter (direct on line)  suitable for 1 - 2 hp motors above this size then it should be a star delta starter. Cold still be immersed in oil. The oil should be transformer oil not PCB. PCB were usually in components not sloshing about in starters.
Hope this helps.

John Rudd:
My advice, fwiw, feet yourself to Machine mart or better still Ebay and get yourself a combined starter/ overload combo......suitably rated for the motor of course.....Run a separate earth, don't rely on the conduit....

lordedmond:
Test or get tested the motor for earth leakage and phase balance before you connect it up

Earth test to at least 150% of line volts

Stuart

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page