Where is everyone from?

[Travis Beste]

Hopefully this is within the scope of this forum, if not I apologize and will delete this message- I'm just curious as to if anyone on here is from my area, and if there are maybe we can share tools Might be nice for those tools you only need once in great while and can't justify buying, but could easily justify driving 40 miles to "borrow" some time using them, and the friendships that can form are pretty cool as well!!!!

I'm from Glencoe, MN, about 60 miles west of Minneapolis. I have a Dynasty 200DX, a lincoln buzzbox, lots of woodworking tools- Dewalt battery tools(drills, circular saw,jig saw, reciprocating saw), corded recip saw, Milwaukee hole-hawg, smaller table saw, Dewalt sliding compound miter saw(DW708), a nice router with a handful of carbide bits, belt sander, angle grinder, handtools, etc.

And the most recent addition- A Bridgeport series 1 vertical milling machine. Scored it today at work for $200!!!!! I'm soo excited to get it home and hooked up. I still need to get the phase converter situation sorted out and I'll be ready to go. It has a very limited amount of tooling, but I hope to slowly add pieces as projects come up. The mill isn't the prettiest one I've ever, but for being almost 40 years old it's in pretty good shape, especially for the price. It has a few thousands slop in the x and y, but the z is still really tight.

Back to the point of this message- Since I've taken so much from these boards I'd like to give something back, and no you guys can't HAVE my tools but if you are close and I have something you need to get a project done I'd be happy to invite ya'll to come on over and hang out. I'm hoping to find someone somewhat close who has a tubing bender and notcher that would be willing to show me the ropes before I purchase my own.

Thanks to all,
Travis

[Ogier]

Maybe it is time for me to move to MN.

[HAWK]

Travis,

I am from the south and have spent a few winters in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, but have never been to Minnesota. Like Ogier said: "Maybe it is time for me to move to MN."

I have a few friends I share tools and shop space with when needed. you may have seen the pictures under a recent post" Best all around cutting tool.

[timw]

Phase Converter

You said the magic words, I just recently built one for my new (1943) Ironworker. I did a google search and came up with the instructions. Here is the web site-http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/projects/phconv/phconv.html
It gives the info for static or rotary converters. I built the static to run a 5hp 3ph motor. The site has grainger part #'s too! It cost me $40. I will try to attach a picture of the converter. I stuck it together to see if it really would work, it worked great so I now have it in a metal box on the wall.

[hankj]

Travis,

Reflecting on the theme of your post, I found the answer to my wife's question as to why I spend so much time on the welding message boards. Aside from the fact that I get nothing from staring mindlessly at the TV, I feel just like you - I've gotten much more than I can give up to now from sssociating with the people who frequent these forums. Getting into welding has not been inexpensive, and the help I've gotten here has greatly shortened the learning curve for me from wasting perfectly good material to building usefull things, and I'll always be greatfull.

Besides, I like these guys!

Be well, everyone.

hankj

[JWELD]

It's important to get a good "rotary" phase convertor , not a ststic. I have been through this

[arcdawg]

i am yankee from good ole CT

dawg

[Qrazy]

Arcdawg and I are from the same state. I am from Southeastern CT though....

[RST200]

Hi Travis,
What size tubing are you looking to bend?

[HAWK]

Originally posted by JWELD
It's important to get a good "rotary" phase convertor , not a ststic. I have been through this

JWELD,

I must agree for most applications the rotary phase convertor is best. The static will work well for things like timw's iron worker. He is only starting the motor and once it is up to speed the flywheel does most of the work. Good advice! Did you get the info we talked about on the Syncro 250?

[Paul Seaman]

Travis:
I am from Evansville, Indiana near the Ohio river. Would you be interested in doing some freelance machine jig building. If so email me I might have a job for you.
Peace,

[Wheat]

I'm from South Carolina. I would like to borrow your 200DX to convince the wife I need to spend nearly 3K for it. When can you deliver it??? LOL of course. Feel free to borrow my MM210 or any tool to fix your car or whatever. Your wish is my command...

[timw]

The web site I posted gives info on building BOTH rotary and static converters. If you want to save money by doing it yourself, I spent $40., the converter for my application cost about $200. The rotary savings could be as good or better.

[ASKANDY]

Travis,

Your post is a very nice gesture and it sounds like you will be the one loaning your shop out...

On the phase converter, I don't think you will have a problem as you probably are not going to tax the machine to capacity anyways. I have both the static and rotary and I use the rotory only for true transformer type loads and the static for motor loads. So far I only went through one of them that was on a cold saw where it saw lots of starting cycle loads. The frequent starting led to a burn out. Otherwise no complaints from me. Unless you can build a rotary cheap enough, it may be overkill and expensive for you. I paid a good chunk for a 25HP rotary that would have been used elsewhere but needed it for the 3 phase multigas plasma table. Sure a rotary is better, so is an Aerowave but you have a Dynasty...

Thanks for being a considerate member.

Good luck

Andy

[Travis Beste]

Went to the local motor shop today after work. I talked to them about my options, static converter, rotary converter, frequency/inverter drive, rebuilding the motor as 3 phase, or finding/fabricating a 1ph motor to work. After reviewing my options and looking at how the current setup is designed I'm going to go with a single phase motor with a C face and "rig" it to work.

Check this site for more info- http://truetex.com/dcdrv.htm

I am a drafter/designer by trade so coming up with the CAD file will be cake for me, and I have a really cool shop just down the road from where I work that has a couple CNC laser tables that is VERY reasonably priced to cut my pieces out for me. The guy at the motor shop said he will wire it all up so I still have the forward/off/reverse switch. Total cost should be $225-$250 for a new motor,C-Face, switch, pulley, and adapter plate. Compared to ~$100 for a commercial static converter, and ~375 for a decent rotary converter I think I'll be happy with this decision. I'll be sure to post pics of the whole thing once I've completed the project(A sort of How-to.) I'm pretty sure there are many others want a mill but are turned off by the need for 3 phase, hopefully this will give them some encouragement to get it done!!!