Installing A VFD/VSD On A Drill Press

[The Hobby Machinist NZ]

A lot of the VFDs are meant to be mounted in an enclosure because they have exposed terminals. In this video I discuss installing a VFD on my drill press and I show how I enclosed the VFD for safety.

[meyer77]

Nice Job!
Is there a VFD for 220 single phase in to 220 single phase out?

[ductape]

Nice Job!
Is there a VFD for 220 single phase in to 220 single phase out?

Not really.
VFDs are generally not compatible with capacitor start or universal motors. Most modern single phase motors are one of these type. There may be some hack out there to make it work, but it would almost certainly be bad for the motor over time.

[The Hobby Machinist NZ]

Nice Job!
Is there a VFD for 220 single phase in to 220 single phase out?

When I was looking into VFDs I did not see any with single phase outputs. Someone else may correct me, but as far as I know these are either single or 3 phase in, and only 3 phase out.

[meyer77]

I did a little research today and there is a hack to take out the capacitor start circuit and another. The best route costs about $325 that includes a VFD and a three phase motor

[2gsg2_muc]

Nice job.
I have two questions regarding the installation.
Do you have openings for ais cooling in the case?
Dit you install a extra RPM meter in your drill?
I made a similar installation with a VFD in a drilling machine, the spindle was driven by a belt 1:1, so the spinle hat the same spped as the motor. So I removed the control box from the VFD and installed the controller in the front panel. The conection was solved by a extension cable of a leght of 10 inches. I used only a safety switch for emergency stop, which can barke the motor instandly.

[schuylergrace]

When I was looking into VFDs I did not see any with single phase outputs. Someone else may correct me, but as far as I know these are either single or 3 phase in, and only 3 phase out.

Yes, that's generally the case that most are 1ph or 3ph in and 3ph out. I have never done it, but I assume you could somehow run a universal motor off of a VFD. I imagine that would not be very good thing for either the motor or the VFD, nor the best way to vary the speed of single phase motor.

Here's a good video explaining the operation of a VFD. It covers a few of the basics of electronics (what diodes do, for example), so it's a good lesson even if you aren't electrically savvy. It still goes into a good bit of detail, though, so it's useful even for guys with oscilloscopes on their benches.

[nova_robotics]

I have never done it, but I assume you could somehow run a universal motor off of a VFD. I imagine that would not be very good thing for either the motor or the VFD, nor the best way to vary the speed of single phase motor.

Yes! You can! It actually doesn't make much of a difference to the motor. The universal motor will just happily continue chugging along as if nothing changed as you adjust the frequency up and down. You're probably right about it beating up the snubbers in the VFD. If you could somehow get in there and reprogram the microcontroller on one of those consumer level VFDs I bet you could get it to do PWM for speed control simultaneously on three different motors. That might be an interesting project.

[meyer77]

I did some research and have come to the conclusion that a three phase motor and a VFD are the way to go, I can get both for less than $300.00.