Re: What's with Fitch? I'm going to retire.

I hear you - I have a power feed motor for my mill thats a custom C-frame,
1/8 hp 480 volt  3 ph.  PITA.  I made up a funky mount for a furnace fan
motor that I had for some reason (does everybody have furnace fan motors
follow them home - I have several and I have no idea why).  Aside from the
fact that it no longer reverses, it's been working fine.

3 ph is popular on machinery because it's always available in commercial
shops, it's cheaper to make the motors, they run smoother, and probably more
reasons I haven't figured out.  High voltage is common because they take
less current and so can use smaller wiring.  Rewinding is expensive - they
tell you to buy a new motor because it's bound to be cheaper and you almost
have to beg them to do your job.

Obviously (for anyone on this NG) once you get the voltage thing figured
out, it will run on single phase with some sort of starting device or static
phase converter (fancy starting device at a high price in a nice box so you
don't have to figure it out on your own).


"geoff merryweather" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Wed, 3 Dec 2003 09:33:04 -0500, "Brian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
> >I converted a 550 volt 3 ph motor to 240v 3ph just the other day.
Dropped
> >it off at the motor rewinding shop and picked it up a week later.  $250
Cdn.
> >Always an option if it's a custom motor (mine was a 2J BP 1.5 hp).
>  It is going off to an electrician to get checked next week, however,
> money is tight (flower prices have been less than the cost of the box
> they ship in) so can't really afford to get it rewound or whatever.
>  I don't know why you can't get these things in single phase - seems
> silly having such a small motor as 3ph.
> geoff