[jimmyjolly]

Hi there, I am looking to firstly buy a house in Adelaide and looking to build a shed and install a CNC lathe and VMC. Probably not looking at anything too big but something to make some parts I am currently doing afterhours at work. I have contacted the power company over here and they were concerned about peak loads on CNC's. The lathe I am looking at would probably have a peak startup load of about 60 amps, the mills would probably be less so with a small mill running would this be likely to trip out my board? I have heard of soft starters but know nothing about them, just curious if anyone has had any luck running a small shop from a 63 amp supply? Thanks for any help, Jimmy

[RCaffin]

Lathe, mill and CNc off a 3-phase 60 A supply.
I strongly recommend going for the 3-phase connection: it gives you 3 separate feeds and you can use 3-phase motors on your machines.

Actually, it's the home-made spot welder that does the damage! Something wrong there. (Transformer probably goes into saturation ...)

Cheers
Roger

[hanermo]

Look at your total kW needed, not amps.

On modern vmcs and turning centers, the axis and spindle drives are very powerful, much more than needed.
Thus, the accelerations for the table or lathe spindle need 100% load for 1-3 secs.

These are easily turned down via setting on machine.
A 40 Hp machine will easily machine at under 20 hp all day long...

[RCaffin]

> A 40 Hp machine will easily machine at under 20 hp all day long...
If it is not machining hard steel, it could be drawing under 2 kW ! It takes very little power to move the axes.
Ha - the compressor for an air blast might be drawing more power!

Cheers
Roger

[Hytek]

If you have the option to go 3 phase I highly recommend it. I currently run my machines one single phase through VSD's and such. Not a day goes by I don't wish for two things, 3 phase power & a bigger......SHED

Good luck tho, Hytek