It's alive, It's alive. :) Woodguy Toolhaul Story Completion

[woodguy1975]

Well, after a few days acting as an industrial electrician I have all three of my machines up and running. The edge sander is powered and plumbed for DC. The W&H molder is powered with a hookup for DC when in use. The big one was the 3 spindle shaper.

Most of you know about this tool, but it has 3 spindles that are driven by 5 Hp 3 phase motors. I bought a 10 HP rotary phase converter to power this and future 3 phase machines. I put the phase converter in my closet with my compressor and ran the 3 phase power feed out with a 50amp single phase 220V breaker feeding it. After doing the final terminations I powered the phase converter. The idler came up and I was seeing power at the 3 phase outlet. A quick flip of the switches on the shaper and around the spindles went. Wew. :eusa_clap The only hitch was the spindles were going the wrong way, but a quick flip of two of the legs fixed that and I was off. The phase converter has plenty to run all three motors at the same time as long as I don't try to start them all at the same exact moment. An hour of DC work and I'll be back to woodworking. :icon_thum :icon_thum

Pics to come. Too tired tonight.

John

 

[Monty]

I would say you suck. But you know that already. :lol:


Congrats on getting that thing started up! :icon_thum

 

[DaveO]

Wow, that's one awesome machine. I am glad you got it up and running. Are you running out of room in that shop yet???
Dave

 

[D L Ames]

Great job John.:icon_thum Do those motors have reversing switches on them so you can run the spindles in either direction if needed?

D L

 

[Mountaincraft]

I wish my trust fund was that big. Sucking is such sweet sorrow.

 

[cskipper]

I know you are glad to get that done! Speaking of running out of room - I just wanted to renew my offer to keep your Hawk safe in my shop!:lol:

 

[Steve D]

What's that I hear? Yes, it's a loud sucking sound coming from the Hickory area.:mrgreen:

Congrats!

 

[woodguy1975]

The motors do have reversing switches. I just wanted the motors to go forward when I flip to forward. Three phase is nice because all you have to do is switch 2 legs and you are good to go.

 

[woodguy1975]

It has decreased my assembly area a bit, but with some good rearrangement there will be plenty of space for everything. I'm really done for tools. A potential lathe and TS upgrade may be in the future, but that will be about it. Perhaps a spindle sander sometime, but that isn't too major of an investment.

I did just order a byrd head for my Oliver jointer yesterday.

 

[D L Ames]

What's that I hear? Yes, it's a loud sucking sound coming from the Hickory area.:mrgreen:

Congrats!

I did just order a byrd head for my Oliver jointer yesterday. :grin:

Boy George.......I think you're right Steve. That sucking sound coming out of Hickory seems to be getting a lot loader now.....I can even hear it down here in Fayetteville.

Congrats on the new Byrd John.........BTW, I hope you find the Byrds on sale now for 40% off at the Greensboro show.:lol:

D L

 

[JohnsonMBrandon]

Cool deal man. Now Ali can find you since the lights will dim in the area. Thats awesome. one of these days I will get my little shaper up and running.

 

[woodguy1975]

Boy George.......I think you're right Steve. That sucking sound coming out of Hickory seems to be getting a lot loader now.....I can even hear it down here in Fayetteville.

Congrats on the new Byrd John.........BTW, I hope you find the Byrds on sale now for 40% off at the Greensboro show.:lol:

D L

LOL, I hope they do run their discount at the show. The planer still needs a byrd. The jointer was in need of replacement knives. It was either spend the $$$ on replacement blades for my HSS steel head or put that money towards the byrd. I've been wanting the byrd and they happened to have one already made so I didn't have to "get in line". That was all I needed. I should have it next week.

 

[cskipper]

I'll gladly provide storage space for your lathe as well:lol: . I know, I'm bad - but it can't hurt to try, right?:lol:

 

[ChrisC]

A converter!!!! John I would have thought you'd have 3 phase ran to your house:lol:

I seen one of those shapers, they are nice for making raised panel doors. I bet that W&H moulder is nice to have.

 

[woodguy1975]

A converter!!!! John I would have thought you'd have 3 phase ran to your house:lol:
I seen one of those shapers, they are nice for making raised panel doors. I bet that W&H moulder is nice to have.

I checked on 3 phase. Didn't like the answer I got, so I went to creat my own. My converter makes enough to run 5 3 phase tools at the same time .

The W&H molder is awsome. It was really the prime reason I went on the tool acquisition. I've already bought a couple knive profiles so I can make my own crown molding, picture frame stock, and bracket feet. I'll be running the bracket feet stock this weekend.

A great thing about shapers that not a lot of folks think about is the reversible profile. I can take a round over and ogee cutter, flip them upside down from normal orientation, reverse the shaper, and make the Lonnie Bird style solid crown for my chest of drawers. The reason for flipping the profile is because you do this after cutting the cove of the crown. That is a great advantage over buying the CMT router bits at $50 a pop. I spend $30 on one shaper cutter and it does both with a cleaner profile. Lonnie makes this crown style in the current Popular Woodworking issue. He also shows it in his Shaping Wood book for those who are interested in what I am talking about.

John

 

[HardRock]

Speaking of making your own 3 phase, has anyone other than me built there own convertor? I think the homemade "rotary" convertors make cleaner 3 phase than the static type convertors.

 

[dave_the_woodworker]

I've been looking at the W&H molder for years. I'm interested in it mainly for bracket feet. Where did you buy yours and where did you get the wide knives for bracket feet?

Dave

 

[woodguy1975]

Dave, I did get the knives for the wide bracket feet. I'm getting ready to post on my chest of drawers job. I may get to run those feet tomorrow. That was one of the primary reasons I wanted it as well. I got this molder from Erin for $400.

It is a great machine. I cleaned it up and it is brand new. Still ran into some cosmoline.

 

[woodguy1975]

A Couple Pics

I was taking some pics of my chest of drawers job and snapped a couple quick pics of the shaper and converter installation.

And here is a quick pic of the phase conveter. The idler in on the floor just below the static converter. Like I said early it is a 10 HP rotary phase converter. It really works great. I've actually put a scope on it. Very clean power.

 

[dave_the_woodworker]

$400!!!!!! :eusa_clap What a fantastic deal. The price of a new machine is $1899. I looked at the W&H site but didn't see any standard molding knives for bracket feet. Six inch custom knives run $260 but I suppose you can mold a whole bunch of bracket feet with them.

Did you find a source of standard knives for this application?

Again, what a great deal. You should go buy some lottery tickets!