Anyone Have an Atlas Shaper using Atlas 3 PH Power?

How big a shaper is this which you want three phase to power?

The only Atlas one which I know of is the 7" one, which is normally single phase 120 VAC for the motor. And that is quite similar to my Rockwell/Delta/AMMCO one, and not that different from the South Bend one. (IIRC, the South Bend is the one which has its own built in oil pump instead of needing a trip round all the GITS oil cups before running. :-)

Do you already have three-phase for your shop? If not, you can run it from a VFD and not need a starter. And the starter could be mounted anywhere within reach anyway. No real need to mount it on the machine.

Enjoy, DoN.

DoN,

I've been using 3 PH for many years. This is one of those 'I want to be different ideas'. Most people don't want to deal with 3 PH so I thought it might be easier to acquire these pieces because users might want to get rid of them. I have a manual starter that I think is the one used by Atlas-its a Cutler-Hammer piece. The motor is pretty straight forward since Atlas put their name on it. I would like to acquire one of these. This is part of my metalworking enjoyment. Gary R.

O.K. So it is now clear that you really want the plain and simple three phase with starter.

This is really the litte 7" shaper? You won't need that big a motor for that. Not even a need for reversing, unless you want jogging, which is easy enough to do by hand on a 7".

Sorry that I don't have the pieces you need. Not sure that there were ever very many of those systems made with three phase.

Good Luck, DoN.

I actually saw an Atlas shaper with a 3-phase motor at a school auction once, was a fractional horsepower item IIRC, like 1/2 horse. Motor was a proprietary thing, would have taken a lot of work to fit a standard frame single phase motor. Lots of pieces missing, so not that great a deal. Same auction also had a Delta scroll saw with a 1/4 horse

3-phase motor on it, same deal, proprietary motor. Smallest 3-phase motors I've ever seen. I guess whoever specced the things to start with wanted the same type of plugs in the whole shop. Had a small Baldor grinder, was 3-phase, too. Guess the O.P. should have been there, although the stuff didn't go cheap. One bidder on the scroll saw didn't even know what 3-phase was when I mentioned it. "Whazzat?" Guess he thought I was trying to discourage bidders.

Stan

Looks like eBay will be my best source for the motor. I'm a bit surprised that no one has responded that owns a 3 PH powered shaper. Either these users are rare or I'm not reaching them. I'm guessing the manual starter is the harder piece to find so I'm glad I have something close (maybe exact). 1 PH Atlas motors show up on eBay quite often so a 3 PH listing should show up - staying optimistic. For now I have a brand new in the box Baldor that will get me going. The shaper needs a good cleaning so that will take some time. Maybe by then an Atlas motor will show up. Thanks for the replies. Gary R.

There's really NO advantage to 3-phase in such an application, you aren't going to be doing instant reversals on a shaper. The only "advantage", if you see it that way, is making all the plugs and sockets the same. You'd probably find 3-phase shaper owners in the 2-3+ hp class. Those would be big beasts, NOT originally home shop class like the Atlas. Hook it up to single phase and start making chips.

Stan

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Perhaps the school used them to discourage theft of the tools? Most thieves would not know what to do with three phase powered tools.

I wonder whether he was the one who won it -- and thus would have to find out what three phase was? :-)

FWIW -- I keep planning to swap a three-phase motor into my Clausing 12x24" lathe -- and run it from a VFD. But I keep being too busy *using* the lathe to work on it for that. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Are you *sure* that the school had not swapped in a three-phase motor on their own, replacing a single phase motor?

You've seen that one three-phase powered Atlas shaper, but have you seen a sales brochure which mentions them as being available?

I don't have the manual for that one, but the one for the South Bend (which was the one with a built-in oil pump) only says this about the motor:

====================================================================== "MOTOR required is 1/3 or 1/2 h.p. 1725 r.p.m., and is mounted on a cradle at the back of the shaper. Power is transmitted by V-belts. A quick acting belt tension release is provided for easy shifting of the belt to change speeds. All V-belts and pulleys are enclosed in substantial metal guards." ======================================================================

And the switch is not called a "starter" in the manual -- just a "Switch Box". Two pushbuttons for start and stop, with no room for a contactor, so it is unlikely to be for three phase.

And I don't remember seeing three phase motors mentioned in the manual for my Rockwell/Delta/AMMCO.

So -- unless you have seen sales brochures from Atlas mentioning the availability of a three phase version, I strongly suspect that it was a modification at the school -- or somewhere in the supply chain for the school.

Enjoy, DoN.

============== see

Neatly mounted on the rear of the machine, the self-contained V-belt motor-drive system carried a 1725 rpm single or three-phase 0.5 hp motor that provided four stroke rates of 45, 78, 122 and 186 per minute.

Bingo-found part no. S7-300 Manual Starter (code ZEBAR) and no. 2620 for the 1/2 HP 3 PH motor.

upper right page 2

also see

A proud owner of an Atlas 7B shaper.

-- Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

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Was too neat a job to be aftermarket substitution, motor was marked "Atlas" besides. Like I said, was a proprietary motor mount. I think the 3-phase was a seldom ordered option, just happened to be that in this case the shop teacher/machinery consultant wanted everything to be 3-phase whether it made sense or not.

I have an AMMCO, it's not much like that particular Atlas at all. That one was more like an Acorn that I've got pictures of.

Stan

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Guess the O.P. should

Everything went very high at that particular auction, I think that scroll saw went for like $500, was missing the throat piece and the table clamp. The shaper was missing most of the small pieces like handles, clapper, tool post and the vise, went for like $750. Only bargain was for a really big Powermatic metal cutting bandsaw, must have had a 36" throat on it and weighed tons. Had about an 1 1/2" blade on as it stood. Not exactly a home basement piece, was about

12' high, probably used a ladder to change blades. Think it went for scrap price. Ditto on a mongo Miller three-phase stick welder, covered most of a pallet and was about 3' high. Couldn't get any bids on that one. Probably needed its own substation.

Stan

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Ouch!

I wonder how big a motor it had? The weird town bylaws say that a tool in a home can have no more than a 2 HP motor. Not sure whether it is on the assumption that it will be woodworking tools like a planer, and trying to keep the noise down, or whether it is trying to minimize power line dips when things start up in a residential neighborhood.

In any case, I am not pleased. :-)

Likely.

Enjoy, DoN.

George,

Thanks for the research. I have a copy of the instructions and didn't remember that 3 PH was mentioned. I also own an Atlas shaper and it came with single phase power.

That said, when I found out Atlas offered 3 PH equipment I made the decision that I wanted same for my shaper. I get a kick out of posters questioning the use of 3 PH. Again, its very simple - I want it. I've had 3 PH in the shop for over 10 years so why not power the shaper also? Now it may be true that no shapers came from the factory with 3 PH. And if no comes forward I'm on my own. But somebody bought that 3 PH equipment and hopefully somebody used it on a shaper. Atlas might have even provided written instruction on mounting, etc - wonder if anything like that is out there, like the single page documents I have for the rotary table and indexing attachment.

I think when I get this finished I'll post some pictures, etc on the Yahoo Atlas shaper group.

Thanks for the lively banter. Gary R.

We have a similar restriction here, though it's buried in the power companies rules rather than the town's land use ordinances. The power company reserves the right to refuse service to any single phase motor, commercial or residential, larger than 5HP, but I've never heard of them actually invoking the rule. I assume, in our case, it has to do with power quality on long rural lines.

I suspect that the town's rationale for a HP limit is to enforce zoning regulations - only industrial entities would need motors larger than 2 HP.

I bet the issue is the startup surge.

With a VFD set up for soft start, no surge.

Joe Gwinn

Most likely in DoN's town, not here. This town has no zoning other than state mandated shoreline zoning. As I said, the provision is in the power company's tariffs, not the town's land use regulations.

I'm sure that's the reason here.