Member postings for Skel

Hi all.

Just spoke to the guys at EMS regarding prices as some of you had asked me.

They say that you are best to contact them and they will deal with each DRO on a case by case basis as there are so many variables involved.

All I can say is that I was very very happy with the price that I paid for my two complete setups.

They even replaced one of the scales free of charge and paid for the postage both ways when I had a slight issue.

They also say that they will not be beaten on price.

Their words, not mine.

Cheers.

Skel.

I was after a 3 axis DRO for my miller and a 2 axis for my lathe.

After much muddling and pondering, I settled on a couple of DRO's from these guys in Kibworth in Leicestershire.

http://www.ems-i.co.uk/

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and service.

They came with a comprehensive set of brackets & nuts n bolts etc and the unit mounts and associated gubbins.

Just thought I'd give you all a heads up really.

And, no I'm not on some kind of commision nor am I associated with these guys in any way.

Cheers.

Skel.

Edited By Skel on 25/07/2016 22:53:04

This is very cool.

Hi everyone.

After some thought and reading all your comments I decided to paint my lathe with tractol white primer and then a top coat of some satin white called containerguard.

It all went quite well untill I decided that the satin white was crap so I sanded it off slightly and put two coats of slightly thinned tractol gloss white/grey on top of that.

I'm quite pleased with the result, it seems very durable, impervious to oil and suds and wipes clean.

Hopefully I have done the photo link properly so you can see my efforts.

Cheers.

Skel.

Edited By Skel on 15/12/2015 21:36:57

Hi Guys.

After lots of reading and head scratching I made a choice.

I went for an ABB inverter from inverter supermarket.

I also Got myself a jog button and a speed control knob.

Here is the list of components.

The whole lot came to £266.11 inc postage which I thought was very good.

Me and Hairy Dave wired it all up using the existing Harrison contactors so the lathe works as normal.

The extra speed control and jog function is very usefull.

Hope this helps others to make a choice when faced with the same quandry as me.

Regards.

Skel.

Edited By Skel on 15/12/2015 20:22:41

Hi everyone.

I didn't realise that this bit existed or I would have used it earlier.

I live in sunny Derbyshire,

I race motorbikes and I drive a ww2 jeep,

Just in the process of getting my workshop sorted.

I have a bridgeport mill, a harrison m300, acdc tig and a plethora of other stuff.

Got lots of projects on my to do list and love reading this forum, I find it a fantastic source of ideas and inspiration.

Cheers.

Skelly.

Today me and Weeble went to a farm auction.

We bought.

an old steamtrain type sack barrow with the best cast iron wheels you have ever seen.

1 tonne of wood.

a backpack type weed sprayer with side pump handle.

an awesome scythe and sickle.

some plastic trays for all the apples from our tree.

Then came home and had fun with the chainsaw, cleared out the hay shed and put a coat of paint on my lathe,

had some snap and took my new scythe out and went grim reapering..

Cheers guys.

Yes the motor plate says

240V 3 phase delta

414V 3 phase star

So no problem there.

Apparently all the M300/250 machines have this dual voltage motor.

Also, I have been told that there is an inverter available that can run the motor unloaded (belts off) and it will figure out its own running parameters on its own.

This sounds good to me. if only I could remember who told me..

I am also looking at the ones that Transwave sell, IMO Jaguar Cub.

They have a remote pod and the people there seem very helpfull and even call me back when they say they will,

which is something I like very much.

The bloke at Drives Direct seems helpfull also.

I dont mind spending a few hundred quid to get the job done right, first time.

A guy at work says that the ABB ones are best as they are very easy to program.

Lots of research to do..

Skel..

Hi..

Thanks for all the replys folks.

I had no idea there was so much passion for this subject..

I have came to a few conclusions.

A static (capacitor type) phase converter is a no no because they have a minimum output which is excess of my suds pump.

so if I run my suds pump on its own it may overheat.

Getting 415V three phase wired in to my workshop is also a no.

That leaves me with 2 options.

A rotary converter or an inverter.

I think because of the degree of control an inverter gives you, I'm going to go down this route.

I will also be swapping or modding the BP motor and running that from an inverter also.

Now all I need is to find a good inverter that has the following functions..

Braking.

Programable accel.

Ability to run with machine E stops and contactors.

Speed and jog control (remote)

Any ideas or experience would be greatly received.

Cheers once again for all your comments, it has helped me very much so far.

Skel.

Hi all.

Ok, another question for you guys.

Very impressed with the level of knoweledge on here so far.

Here goes...

In my workshop I have single phase 240v electrics.

I have a bridgeport milling machine with a 1.5hp 3 phase 415 volt motor,

it also has a suds pump motor which is about 1/4 hp 3 phase and 415 volts so this machine does really need 'proper' 3 phase or as near as can be realistically achieved due to the motors being single voltage.

Now, I also need to run my Harrison M300 lathe which happens to have a 3 phase 3hp 230v / 415v dual voltage motor,

it also has a 3 phase 1/4hp suds pump motor which maybee dual voltage but I cant tell as yet.

So the quandry is this.

How do I make em all work reliably without having a phase converter for the mill and an inverter for the lathe with seperate static phase converter for the two suds motors ?

Any ideas or experiences you would like to share would be greatly received.

Cheers.

Skelly.

Wow..

Choices choices.

After much deliberation I think I'm going to go for this one in semi gloss.

http://www.stationaryengineparts.com/BS4800-22-B-15-Pearl-grey-Swansdown.html

Its a later M300 than the vomit beige ones.

In fact, if I had a vomit beige one, I would strip it and paint it this colour.

Hopefully it will turn out ok, the original paint was textured but I'm not going for that as I think it makes it harder to keep clean.

I will post a photo when its done.

Thanks for all your help.

Skelly.

Hi Everyone.

I'm new on here and this is my first post so greetings to everyone.

I'm about to paint my Harrison M300 lathe and I'm wondering what the best stuff to use is ?

I'm planning on brush painting it.

Its the model with the white top and battleship grey base.

It needs to be a satin finish and be oil and coolant proof.

Any ideas ?

Cheers.

Skel