Quote:
Originally Posted by milt
But, at what cost to install and overall performance? You might find an old Bridgeport for a few hundred dollars, but what will you have invested by the time you can use it at home?
I agree that shear mass has a lot to do with good work. That's true with a good table saw. (Which needs only a quality blade to be as smooth as silk.)
|
The cost is really not as bad as you might think.
I am powering my mill and lathe with hitachi sj200 vfd's. I get them for about $280 IIRC.
(this is uber cheap when you compare it to the cost of tooling up a mill and a lathe so you can actually make chips)
Using the VFD gives me 100% of the motors rated output while having the ability for variable speed, resistor braking, and fwd/rev control. They are fully programmable and have many options on how you want the machine to behave.
There are cheaper vfd's out there but I like having all the bells and whistles.
Machine tools like mills and lathes operate much better and produce better finishes with 3phase power as opposed to 1 phase.
The static phase converter that Tim posted is ok but they only reproduce about 2/3rds of the motors rated output.