wiring help for a clarke phase inverter !

Yes it is the neutral that's missing, the phase converter only produces a 3 wire output. However, you should check that your lathe doesn't have anything but the motor connected to neutral, if it has say the low voltage lighting powered by a transformer from a phase to neutral you should replace it with a 415V one from phase to phase and use the two phases that come from the auto transformer in the converter, NOT the one that is generated by capacitors as this may be way off the required voltage.

If the motor has a neutral connection that's ok, but you should not use that neutral to power 240V accessories like lighting transformers and control gear as it may way off the nominal voltage.

For you 3HP motor you should switch on the 1HP and one of the 2HP switches, these select appropriate banks of capacitors for the size of your motor.

Greg

thanks for that ! but more questions ....... oh dear , where do i star

? ive wired off my household cooker point ,6mm 2 core and earth cabl into the converter .wired from the converter to the lathe . switched o but nothing happens , nothing trips out either ! ive just bought th converter off e-bay , suposedly working , ive seen the lathe run in workshop . has anybody got any sugestions please ???? re the converte , when switched on the only thing that happens is a real fain vibration ,no noise or clicks or anything

-- willowkevi

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Did you check your lathe for control gear that's connected to the neutral?, it could be as simple as that, no neutral so no power for a motor contactor.

Do you have a volt meter that you can use to check the output of the converter?, if so measure across each of the pairs of phases (with the lathe disconnected) and you should see very roughly 400-415V across one pair, the ones from the auto transformer which you can probably hear buzzing. The other pairs will give you wildly different values as the 'manufactured' phase has no load.

Does the Ebayer have a good rating...

Greg

the 5 pin plug fitted to lathe didnt have a neutral . so today i jus

swapped two of the live wires around . that did the trick and away i went! thanks greg for the advice

-- willowkevi

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As the lathe didn't have a neutral it had it's control gear connected across two phases, these need to be the two from the auto-transformer in the converter which are always present, not the third phase which is generated by the motor, swapping wires moved the control gear to the right place and bob's your uncle, glad I could help.

Greg