Myford Super 7 lathe upgrade to 3 phase

Hi everyone. I bought a Myford Super 7 lather just before Christmas. When I got it home it kept tripping the RCD so after some fault finding I decided to upgrade to 3 phase. This replaces the motor and with the inverter gives variable speed control without all the pull changes.

I created my first youtube video to share my experience of the upgrade. Please feel free to have a look. The link is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjw3YWdZjEeJ6kgXIBt5aag

Any help with thumbs up etc gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

Nick

A bit late to the party , but nice job Nick. The control panel looks very nice on those Newton Tesla's

Steve.

My only comment apart from saying you dealt with a good (and helpful) supplier is that the bench does not appear to be stiff enough to enable a enduring levelling setup for the lathe bed to hold its settings. Perhaps I should await your experiences as regards precision of turning ie lack of taper.

Well done otherwise.

I am very happy with my NT installation which I have had for some years.

Since I started cautiously exploiting the Reverse feature, however, I have become aware of the danger of leaving the two way switch on Reverse - a sure way to destroy an insert if you forget to switch back to Forward. Twice bitten, I have now contrived a warning notice for the clutch lever:

I use Reverse in conjunction with the Jog feature for rapidly removing taps and dies and for screw cutting away from a shoulder. I haven't had the well known problem of the chuck unscrewing unintentionally but I have converted one chuck for a retaining drawbar.

Congratulations Nick, looks like a a very nice and useable setup, you may however wish to protect your motor from the ingress of swarf which could let out the magic smoke. Your motor seems have openings which will allow such intrusion but need to be open to allow heat dissipation. Found this out the hard way and now use TEFC motors.These are totally enclosed and use a fan for forced cooling via fins on the outside of the motor.

regards Paul

NT no doubt source their motors where they can but the Australian motor that came with my NT kit has an end cover over the fan which does a good job of keeping the swarf at bay.

The VFD for my S7, has setting for acceleration and decelleration and was set for me initially from the shop that sold both the VFD and the motor. They highlighted the settings page so that I could adjust them if required. I also added a micro switch for when I am thread cutting. It will stop the motor and decellerates nicely and is very consistent in the depth at which it stops. I always have a thread relief when thread cutting, internal or external. I use the original Myford switch box and use the on off switch for the direction the motor is running in. The box itself is mounted away from the oil chips etc. It is at eye height when using the machine.

I do like the compactness of the one unit you have and how quick and easy the whole installation was from start to finish. Mine took more than a day to install the 3phase motor alone, but the hook up of the unit was plug and play like you have. Sadly the guy at the shop I bought my set up from is no longer working there, so the service of getting a pre programmed vfd for the motor and application is very much being missed.

A great video as well.

Thanks, Neil