Thread: electrical problem with old 3-phase milling machine

Had a bit of a go at it this afternoon, I tried changing the solenoid feed to the phase that is direct through the transformer, made no difference. That is about as far as I am game to go.
I can't get the machine to start at all now except in neutral, which is a pain as I have a job in the vice that I wanted to get finished.
Will give you a call this evening Gav. I have about half a dozen contactors here left over from the converter build, I'm sure one of them should do the job.

Happy times, I caught up today with the friend who designed my phase converter and supplied me with the bits. I described the contactor problem to him and he said it sounded like the solenoid was running on the phantom phase, suggested swapping the feed wires, rotating positions to avoid reversing the motor. I did that and the machine now starts just like it should.
There is still one minor issue in that there is a momentary switch on the gearbox that is used for lining up teeth when changing the spindle gears; it now operates as a start switch instead of a momentary. Something for Gav to do when he brings his milling job!