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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 17:31:26 :
In Reply to: Too Bad This One Is 3 Phase.... posted by Marty [174.7.23.230] on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 16:09:25 :
You can get VFDs for a couple hundred bucks that will run small three-phase motors of a single phase input. I have not tried them myself, but I have a friend who's an electrician/engineer for a big paper mill and he says they run lots of them, and guys he knows put them on their lathe and drill presses so they can dial in the speed without changing pulleys and gears. The variable speed feature doesn't gain you anything on an air compressor, but if you find a screaming deal on a 3-phase unit and all you have in your shop is single-phase and you don't want to mess with a rotary phase converter, which is large and expensive, or a capacitor-box phase converter that reduces the motor's power, one of these new VFDs might be just the trick.