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Lathe Wiring

If you need more pictures let me know, here's what I've got
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There seem to be three cables going in / out the bottom. Which ones go where?

Only the two on the right seem to be candidates to go to the panel / power source.
 
So in from the panel is 220V with a neutral to provide 120V for some accessory

Out to the motor is 220

The transformer is still a mystery - why have one if the output voltage is directly available? - but otherwise, those connections make perfect sense
 
mbond said:
The transformer is still a mystery - why have one if the output voltage is directly available?
Click to expand...
On dual voltage machines, this is customary. The mains cable can then be just 220 or 110V and the transformer makes the control voltages. it doe not produce enough VAs to power anything beyone the relays. I wired mine in the circuit, even though I had 110V available in the cable. Then I only moven one wire in teh control circuit, and rewired the motor for 220V, and that was it. 10 minutes. To bypass the transformer I'd have to remove both leads, add add teh 110V leg. prolly 10 minutes, but then I wouldn't conform to the 220V scematic, and that would offedn my undiagnosed OCD.
 
It seems to me that OCD is about the only plausible explanation ;)

It is almost impossible to have 208 / 220 /240 without 120 like voltage available. All the NEMA and IEC and IEAD standards work that way. All the public electric grids in North America, Europe, Japan, 'colonial' south east Asia and Pacific islands and Australia work this way. Aviation and marine systems have different standards and there are lots of custom industrial ones too. And who knows what they do in Africa or any of the old Soviet places
 
mbond said:
It is almost impossible to have 208 / 220 /240 without 120 like voltage available. All the NEMA and IEC and IEAD standards work that way. All the public electric grids in North America, Europe, Japan, 'colonial' south east Asia and Pacific islands and Australia work this way. Aviation and marine systems have different standards and there are lots of custom industrial ones too. And who knows what they do in Africa or any of the old Soviet places
Click to expand...
You missed Great Britian and New Zealand, where *only* 240V is available.
 
In both those countries, hot to ground is 120V

In North America, 120V is actually hot to ground too. we just add extra wires and call them neutral ;)
 
Well!!! First of all the motor is as you all had guessed is 220. I followed luc simoneau's advice and wired the way his was. No white smoke....but there is something not right in the control panel. The red power light comes on when you turn the switch on. THere is no voltage at the red switch when it is turned on. There is 110 at the light though. The green button does not engage. The green switch which is for the coolant does have 220. Its a mystery. Can you manually engage the relays?

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A few tidbits of information - first of all, the green push button is just a spindle "JOG" button, it will not latch. To assure right starting conditions, the E-Stop button must be pulled (deactivated) and the chuck guard must be in the closed position so that the limit switch is tripped.
 
Hello All
I am going to go with a VFD. Im pretty sure that my latest problem with lathe wiring is a faulty contactor. In any case the vfd seems to be the way to go. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
That is my plan for my lathe too. I already have the motor and the VFD. I got a TECO for many reasons. They are more money but they are also full featured.

Unlike a mill which is much more plug and play, you will need to almost completely rewire a lathe. The VFD basically replaces all the contactors so all your lathe hardware has to be rewired to connect to the VFD instead.

I want to maintain backward compatibility so I plan to install a second busbar to do the interface and leave the first busbar wired the way it is. That way it's easy to reverse everything.
 
Dabbler said:
On dual voltage machines, this is customary. The mains cable can then be just 220 or 110V and the transformer makes the control voltages. it doe not produce enough VAs to power anything beyone the relays. I wired mine in the circuit, even though I had 110V available in the cable. Then I only moven one wire in teh control circuit, and rewired the motor for 220V, and that was it. 10 minutes. To bypass the transformer I'd have to remove both leads, add add teh 110V leg. prolly 10 minutes, but then I wouldn't conform to the 220V scematic, and that would offedn my undiagnosed OCD.
Click to expand...

I have actually few few machines that run 240 -> 120v transformer - I even use two such transformers to power a lamp. I do not like extra 120v cable.
 
My VFD experience is all with the cheap ones. Don't put a 3HP motor on a cheap 3HP VFD. That one failed in a few months; vevor refunded me about half the purchase price to stop bothering them, and in theory I can replace the power transistors for about that amount, though I don't expect I'll ever get around to it.
The 5HP VFD that cost 40-50$ more is holding up just fine with the 3HP motor on the power hammer.
 
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