Single to 3 phase converter

[brightspark]

Always worth looking at the various options. Leccy board specced it but I dug my own service trench 450mts across fields to the nearest supply in the road, leccy board came and laid a big three phase cable , connected to a new head and meter for £850. Digging my own trench and reinstating saved me 6K. A friend in a similar position but a lot further away from the road had his meter fitted roadside and ran his own sub main in, a saving of 18k. Downside of this is they wanted the sub main protected , every time it trips he has to drive down to box at the road.
Bob

no problem should have used a 100 milliamp time delayed trip to protect the cable at source and used a 30 milliamp trip at the end of the line

 

[Pete.]

Just an FYI for anyone reading this thread... I run a 300a tig off a 12kw rotary phase converter that has a d63 input breaker - so if you have a 100 main fuse then this sort of thing 'could' be doable at home...

One of the key points is having a star-delta starter on the idler motor of the rpc. Boost energy ones don't and require a seriously large amount of start current to get them spun up.

I don't have mains so power my rpc from a single phase generator, but that's really just incidental

From what I've read the yanks often use a pony motor to spin up the RPC idler before throwing in the juice when using a large converter.

 

[HughF]

From what I've read the yanks often use a pony motor to spin up the RPC idler before throwing in the juice when using a large converter.

A few home built ones do, most of the off-the-shelf ones are boost cap start. The biggest one American rotary build is 50hp but then the yanks have 200a split phase panels as standard.

 

[Richard.]

Don't take this the wrong way spencer but it sounds like you've got cash to burn and ticking boxes willy nilly.
Why on earth do you want a 350 amp pulsed mig to weld up your own lorry. You don't need pulse on steel that thick and it's not a production business building lorrys. It's a few repairs and mods. Drop a grand on a 200 amp multiprocess machine and teach yourself to stick weld.
No wait you already have a 200 amp mp machine. Feed it 16 amps and get learning v up MMA.
I've just saved you 5 grand.
Take the wife to Disney land.

 

[pondy]

I've just saved you 5 grand.
Take the wife to Disney land.

 

[God mode restorations]

Don't take this the wrong way spencer but it sounds like you've got cash to burn and ticking boxes willy nilly.
Why on earth do you want a 350 amp pulsed mig to weld up your own lorry. You don't need pulse on steel that thick and it's not a production business building lorrys. It's a few repairs and mods. Drop a grand on a 200 amp multiprocess machine and teach yourself to stick weld.
No wait you already have a 200 amp mp machine. Feed it 16 amps and get learning v up MMA.
I've just saved you 5 grand.
Take the wife to Disney land.

I never take anything the wrong way. I appreciate the help and opinions from you guys... yes I admit I do get in to a pickle sometimes....but I think I will get a 16 amp supply fitted. That way I can run machines at maximum.... I will invest in to a ac/dc tig .the bigger stuff I will have to stick weld...basically gone round in a big sircles and ended up back where I started lol....but at least I no what to do. Thanks for all the help and questions thoe....

 

[God mode restorations]

But like anything. Sometimes I think about investing in to bigger and better tooling.and before you no it is spent 10 grand in my head...but I got it sussed now...I guess I should be thankful for what I got...

 

[Questions]

If you upgrade your power supply from the house to the garage, using 10mm cable,
you will be able to run any single phase mig that will be big enough to weld 1mm and most
likely 1.2mm wire. 1mm wire tops out below 270 amps, and I see no reason what so ever
why you could not go up to 1.2mm on a 10mm cable, the amps required to do this will not
blow that 50 amp fuse, I know other things could be switched on that could result in the fuse
going, but simple timing will avoid all this, for example if someone turns on the shower in my
house the extraction fan alerts me, I can hear it start, so I would avoid welding for that short time,
but I have yet to encounter this scenario.
Put in the biggest supply you can, even better if you get three phase for reasonable money,
and take it from there, that way you won't be restricting yourself and having to re wire all over
again when you hit the wall.