My Powermaticdrill press with VFD

Looks way cool. Where is the switch, though?

Switch? Switch for what? I got it set up to run it all through the VFD, and axed the factory on-off switch. I have forward/reverse, jog, start, and stop. I have the braking set to one second, which is the lowest setting, so at any speed it will come to a complete stop in one second, or less. When running the VFD at 30 hertz, and the variable speed cranked all the way down, about 60 RPM, the spindle will stop in 1/2 a revolution. What more do you need? Greg

The bins to the left in the picture are empty. What kind of a metalworker has empty bins? Paul

Kool. I mistread it as Problematic drill press. ;>)

The bins to the left in the picture are empty. What kind of a metalworker has empty bins? Paul

Bolt bins, and they are not empty. They are just not real full, just full enough! Greg O

Nice set-up, seems to be missing the OH-SH(T button though. The one that you can mash when things go wrong and stop it NOW.

The stop button stops the spindle in one second. Fastest braking this VFD will do. Good enough "oh shit" button for me. Greg O

no - that 1 sec "braking" is really a deceleration profile that will power it for 1 sec on a donward RPM slope - you want the E-stop to cut power to the motor - every VFD I've ever seen (a few dozen that I've looked at carefully) had a feature that put it into "neutral" - sometimes you had to choose but it is always there. Set the "off" switch to "coast" rather than the decl profile - much safer.

Note that you can have surprises due to too fast decl, such as a screw mounted thing unscrewing - coast is a much better choice

You obviously have not tried elecronic deceleration. It may be the best feature of a VFD on a drill press and other machines.

Stopping too fast on a drill press?? Never heard of such a concept! I would rather stop right now, than coast to a stop when something goes to hell! And what is this screw mounted thing you talk of?? Greg O

A big, red e-stop button hat you can slap when one hand gets wrapped around the chuck.

The membrane switch on the VFD panel? Try whacking that in a panic?

Get a real 'big red button'.

No clue why my hand would be anywhere near the chuck with the drill running. I figure the one hand will be on the feed handle, and the other hovering over the stop button, or the reverse. I have run drill presses in the past that make this tning look like a baby. Never needed a e-stop button, and my hands were never near the working end of the drill press. Running a 5 HP gear head drill press you clamp the work down good, and stay out of the way. Same practice I will use with this one. Greg O

My Powermatic 1200 has a reversing switch. It seems to work very nicely for me.

That drum switch is NOT a proper "Big Red Panic Button" that you can mash if things go very wrong, and we both know it. Install one, NOW. Better yet install two, one high and one low. It doesn't have to be beautiful, it just has to work.

Do you really want 100 of your best buds all yelling "I Told You So!!" as you learn to type while short a digit or two for the rest of your life? Or worse, the whole arm?

Oh, and that drum switch better be connected as a signal-level input to the VFD, and not be line voltage between the VFD and the motor. Most VFD's do NOT like it when you open the motor leads under load, the Magic Smoke tends to escape from the transistors.

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I definitely do not. OTOH, I have never seen a drill press with such a button, either.

Yes, 10v signal level input.

Damned straight. And not!!! switching the motor leads under VFD is something Ive mentioned time and again here.

Gunner

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." -- Benjamin Franklin, /The Encouragement of Idleness/, 1766

Then you haven't been looking very hard, Iggy. Or you simply choose not to see...

The vast majority of the power switches on newer drill presses and saws and such (unless they are imported from Elbonia) are right out in front, and are a hybrid Push-Pull Toggle hinged at the top. Pull out from the bottom to turn on, mash in to turn off.

The fancy ones on stationary tools have a Key Pin you have to insert to turn it on, and if there are kids in the house you can take the plastic key out and hide it. Keeps the under six set from losing an arm.

The "keys" I've seen are easy to defeat with a sliver of wood and a little whittling, but if the kid is old enough to defeat the lock he should also be old enough to realize the tool can be dangerous.

Good. And you used a hunk of CAT-5 cable (4-pair) between the VFD and the switch, right? Should have taken two pair tops. So take a spare pair and hook the NC contacts on a mushroom head Panic Button to the E-Stop contacts on the VFD.

And the second remote switch down low or a few feet away can't hurt

- if there's a large piece of work spinning around on the chuck, you might not get close enough to hit the button on the machine...

If I was running a CNC Shop where I wanted to start the machine and let it do it's thing as I wander away to do something else, like paperwork...

I'd have a video camera on each machine and a monitor on my desk - with a remoted Little Yellow button for a regular machine stop (to go out and replace a broken tool without losing the zero and the program) and a Big Red Button for E-stop if you see (and/or hear) a full-on crash happening.

Remember our r.c.m motto: Safety Third.

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