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Variable Frequency Drives.

Posts

Variable Frequency Drives.

#1

Maurice

I really like infinitely variable speed control.
My thicknesser has a feed speed control but it's not VFD. Far to many woodworker's feed to fast then wonder why the planer ripple and tear out ? Dude ! Sharpen your knives and slow it down to a snails pace and you can get ripple and tear out free finishing cuts. Easy. Take a few seconds more on your feed rates and save yourself hours of sanding, scraping and hand planing.
Rant over.
Matching feed speed and cutter speed is something every metal machinist understands but woodworker's are bludgeoned by bosses to push machines hard and they just make the job take longer.
VFD's used to be expensive luxuries but because your washing machine, dryer and fridge motors are now three phase and powered by mass production VFD ? Way way cheaper. 
I have three now. Can't imagine life without them. Easy to wire up. I put mine where the starter switch used to live. 
Japanese hollow chisel mortising bits are designed to run at half the speed of British pattern. 1400 rpm or less. So I put one on the Robinson which runs at 2850.
Be careful not to run at to low rpm for to long under load though. It can make your motor run to hot if the fan is not blowing enough air over the body. 
I will post some pics later. 
Mtm warehouse in Sydney. Conon motors in Melbourne for Aussie suppliers I have used.
They will supply matched motors too. 
I'm sure you can get single phase too.

Re: Variable Frequency Drives.

#2

I like the speed control on machines also. I run the wood lathe, drill press and a 24 inch disc sander with DC motors and speed controllers.

Re: Variable Frequency Drives.

#3

Maurice

I have one on my lathe. It's a cheap crappy one with a finicky reverse switch. The lathe is nothing special either. 
But I don't use it very often.
I'm thinking of getting two more soon. 
One for the Multico mortiser and another for my drill press. 
My straight knife grinder has a really high quality one which is very smooth and quiet.
Tweaking the feed speed makes a huge difference to the quality of the finish grinding. 
I just find them a very worthwhile upgrade for certain machines.

Re: Variable Frequency Drives.

#4

Ellis Walentine

Sharpen your knives and slow it down to a snails pace and you can get ripple and tear out free finishing cuts. Easy. Take a few seconds more on your feed rates and save yourself hours of sanding, scraping and hand planing.

Speaking of feed speed, a buddy of mine hooked up an old Triumph motorcycle transmission to the feed rolls on his Whitney planer. Nothing like speed shifting on the fly.

Ellis

Re: Variable Frequency Drives.

#5

"  Speaking of feed speed, a buddy of mine hooked up an old Triumph motorcycle transmission to the feed rolls on his Whitney planer. Nothing like speed shifting on the fly."
Forget the wood chipper. I'd rather have the transmission on the original machine, and that in my garage. Interesting.... I never see the old things the same way now.

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