The Shop > Tools

3 Phase Motor Starters

<< < (3/6) > >>

hermetic:
where are you in the UK Russel?

RussellT:
I'm in North Derbyshire, near Manchester, the lathe is in Mellor.

Russell

hermetic:
Right, well Im in East Yorkshire (Driffield) so I can't "pop over for ten minutes" Now we know the starter and motor have worked together before, and the starter is a much smaller ones than I have ever worked on, I would have a clean at the top, and see what it says, apart from "made in England" and also the plate at the front, to see if it says DOL (direct on line). As there are only three wires coming from it, we can assume it is, and connect the three wires to the three wires from the motor, the worst it can do is go the wrong way, so make sure the machine is out of gear. If there are any switches or stop buttons on the lathe, you ought to take the tops off and check the condition of the wiring, as these starters came from an era when the wiring was usually VIR (vulcanised india rubber) which is a matt reddybrown colour and is covered with a woven cotton outer sheath. This cable is usually in perfect condition where it is inside a conduit, but tends to dry out at the terminations, with the result that all the insulation falls off! Also it does not like oil, which makes it go all sticky and it can catch fire! If it is VIR I would rewire it in pvc singles to be on the safe side, then megger the whole machine, not just the motor, as vir itself can be "leaky" electrically. With the POWER OFF!! and with the tank off. move the handle on the starter and see if it just moves one position from off to on, check the movement underneath, and check for loose contacts, or anything that looks burnt. The good news is that you can take a fine file to the contacts and restore them to as near to the original shape as possible. WITH THE POWER OFF!!!!! operate the handle and check that all the contacts meet with reasonable pressure as the handle gets to the run position. Filter the oil through the wifes best tights, clean the debris out of the bottom of the tank, refill and give it a try! Some Ellisons have mechanical hold in when in the run position, some have electrical hold in using a coil. With mechanical hold in, the overloads will mechanically trip the stop mechanism, with the electrical system the overloads drop the coil out and the starter switches off, mechanical ones do NOT release on no volts, so beware if you have a power cut, as the starter will stay in the on position and the machine will restart when power is restored!! TBH I am pulling all this from memory, and it is a long time ago, so if you can get a knowledgable "old" sparky on the job, do it! Anyone trained later than the early eighties will run away screaming when they see this equipment!
Phil

lordedmond:
Russell
Like phil I am to far away to pop over Derbyshire Notts border

If the motor has only three wires coming from it it the starter is bound to be a direct online , if it will not hold on in the run position please do not do as I have seen eons ago tie the handle up with string , it was a regular thing to find at Stanton iron works the operator would say the handle will not stay on when I use the machine it turns off so I mended it with some string ( also very common on the local farms except they used binder twine ) , all it was was the overloads tripping , but try and tell them that   :doh:

as Phil has said these were in use pre me and not common after the sixties

Unlike Phil my personal preference was not to file any copper copper contact that had a rolling motion , I found that it cause them to wear out quicker and weld up , but thats my view not to say that Phil is wrong but we were all trained with different mentors and thus have different views

you will have some difficulty in finding the oil if you need some , hope you don't just don't spill it on your shoes or clothes , you will not get rid on the stink , old Murex welders had the same oil in them ( 330 amp jobs ) and I swear they had a green haze over the tank when you craned out the transformer/switch gear they were bad

good luck with it and be safe

Stuart

hermetic:
Completely agree stuart! I too have seen the string, mainly on the farm mill motor, which was usually a star delta! On one occasion the stack fork just happened to be the right length. Yes agreed, don't file the roller type contacts, I was meaning the teardrop (roughly) shaped ones that generally burn a flat onto the contact after much use. I really do not know what the contacts on this type are like, the ones I used to work on were on resistance start motors, or big slip ring jobs running things like gravel plant crackers, or huge factory mixing plants. I recognised the modular steel panels with the starters mounted on them, and the steel feet at the bottom though, there was a switchroom in the local Glaxo plant (the UK's first powdered milk plant 1934 in Driffield) that used these with Ellisons bolted to them. My life was saved one day by an Ellison main breaker at Glaxo, which dropped out when I was drilling into the top of a live busbar chamber, and the drill snapped........there was hardly a flash, and I lost a couple of fingerprints as well! I was about 16. (1967 ish) We were converting Glaxo into a turkey processing plant for Twydale turkeys.  It had its own borehole with a beresford submersible pump, a huge gantry crane to pull it out, and a six foot tall starter with glass panels in the front so you could watch it operate (star/delta) 33 years old, still worked perfectly. unlike me!
Phil

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page