Step-up Converter for Mill

[Lireal]

My team is starting for a mill for us to get for next year, and we were wondering if there was a way to use a standard houshold 120 volt, 20 amp circuit to power a 240 volt mill. Could we use something like these or would that cause problems?

[asid61]

240 volt or 208 3-phase?
I believe some converters are sold specifically for the purpose of powering mills, both step-up and step-up + 3-phase converter.
What mill are you looking at?

[JohnFogarty]

I believe the device that you need based on the other thread you started and the follow up conversation is called a VFD, Variable Frequency Drive. As to which one to get, that would be good to find out.

[protoserge]

For the money spent on those transformers, you could just buy a 120V motor and switch it out. Some 240V mills can be wired for 120V, it depends on the motor. Post what mill you are considering purchasing and we can help you with options.

[FrankJ]

How many HP? You generally don't have enough power on 110 to run anything but the smaller machines and even then it is best to have it on a dedicated circuit.

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by Lireal

My team is starting for a mill for us to get for next year, and we were wondering if there was a way to use a standard houshold 120 volt, 20 amp circuit to power a 240 volt mill. Could we use something like these or would that cause problems?

Electrical delivery in homes is usually 220VAC.
They give you 2 sides of a transformer output.
Hence the 2 110VAC waveforms are out of sync.

Can you not get to the panel with 220VAC mains and get both hot wires?

If not the I agree with the others you should be mindful of not just the voltage but the power.

[Tangert]

The Step up Transformer that you are looking at is used to convert voltage from 120VAC to 240VAC its still is single phase or a polyphase not 3 phase. If possible you are better off going to your main panel and having an electrician run a new 240 VAC circuit similar to how your clothes dryer and your stove or run on. The reason for this is because when we Step Up voltage or amperage draw goes down while maintaining the same horsepower. Ohms law, Watts law. The more typical option recently for home machinist is to buy a variable frequency drive or vfd this will take single phase in and put out 3 phase in addition to that it very easily enables you to adjust the speed of your motor. You will need to look for one that has a single phase input in a 3-phase output that is also rated for the horsepower of your motor. Wolf automation has some affordable option (cheap) that work well on smaller projects. I prefer Allen bradlley products like the powerflex series. http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/Drives/Compact

Good luck. And be safe this is more deadly than 12VDC so make sure the work is being done by someone qualified.

[sanddrag]

I've had one of this VFD on our lathe for years, and it works pretty well. However, you aren't really going to drive anything bigger than a 1HP or maybe 1.5HP 2-phase motor on a 120V 20A circuit and VFD.