This is my home shop welding equipment

[B2N3 Welder]

little bit of everything all welders are 3ph all older machines but work great

[BBchevy396]

Sweet Hobart, in the first pic.! Love to have one!

[JohnnyWeld]

B2n3, You have 3 phase in your HOME shop? THat must be sweet. I had 80 amps allocated to my garage when I worked out of it. Only could run 1 single phase machine at a time, oh and the beer fridge.

[TxRedneck]

Well yeah the single phase took me...but thatrs great. A friend on here, hes building a shop down in south Texas, I believe he was the one who said he had contemplated three phase and could have gotten it, but the cost was enourmous. Or maybe he said it ended a mile up the road, and would have been enourmous if hed been offered it. Either way....its expensive to get in. But good once youe got it.

[smithboy]

Johnny, the beer fridge comes first, not as an afterthought . Once you have that part squared away, you can then concentrate on getting equipment. Priorities, man...got to set priorities.

B2N3, that's quite a setup for a home shop. You must have industrial housing in your area. I like also....

[JohnnyWeld]

Oh yes, when the power goes out , the trailblazer drops what its doin and goes into preserve and protect mode and keeps that fridge running!

[B2N3 Welder]

Thanks guys I got lucky the guy that owned my house before me had more credit cards than brains. He had it installed, he had 3 lathes in the shop.Johnny the fridge is right beside the small hobart tig . I also got a trailblazer 44G Just had the continental engine rebuilt,just in case the power goes out supplying the fridge gotta keep the labatt cold.

[smithboy]

Finding your beer languishing in a cooler with lukewarm water in the bottem can mess up a three-day weekend. I am thinking of putting my fridge on an uninteruptable power supply, but my wife said the kids are hungry. A MAN SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO MAKE THIS DECISION!!!

[Nick Kent]

You don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to run 3 phase. My father has a 3 phase set up for his 12" jointer that is run by a converter. It was set up by some electrical genius awhile back. He uses a small single phase motor with a belt to get this converter turning over and up to speed and then you give the converter power and it will provide three phase to the jointer. The whole setup takes up a 2x3' space tops.

[B2N3 Welder]

Nick I know a couple guys that run single phase to 3phs motors then to a panel then thru that panel to the main.Works like a charm

[JohnnyWeld]

Smithboy, someday I need to sit down with a seasoned beerdrinker like yourself and learn the art with enthusiasm matched only by efficiency ! ;O)

[smithboy]

I still consider myself an enthusiastic novice when it comes to beer. I am trying to get a bunch more practice cause I got started late in life. I had my first beer after I got married. I know....in Georgia, that could still be at age 12, but there again, I got started late (age 20 for marriage...age 21 for beer). And, no, the wife didn't cause the drinking.

As for efficiency...I am at my most efficient when it comes to avoiding real work. Productivity comes from being both lazy and having the desire to get things done...at the same time. I try to get the most work done with the least effort...except for in my hobbies.

[JohnnyWeld]

Smitty, your cracking me up!

[alan waters]

If you need 3 phase power look up roto phase on the web.

[wizard]

It souds like you are talking about a 3 Phase rotary converter here. These are a solution to a problem but from my perspective are less than ideal. The phases are not balanced and the machines are not very efficient. You might get into a situation where you will need to derate the welder while running off the converter. When running motor powered tools there is an issue with getting full performance out ot the motor.

This is not to say they don't work but when it comes to welding and the current demand that welders have on the supply I'm not sure such converters would be worth the effort. There is o free lunch when it coems to 3 phase. When it comes to welding I'd thnk that you would be better off buying a sinngle phase welder if that is all you got in the way of AC power.

With todays newer single phase welders and the even newer inverter based tehcnologies the cost advantage would seem to be with the single phase machines. When it comes to welding with a three phase machine on a rotary converter you are talking serious current. You are talking about a motor (rotary converter) that can handle 40 or more amps per phase. That is a serious and expensive three phase motor. Not to mentione the single phase input current. I woulld love to hear from people with serious experience rrunning thre phase welders off rotary converters though.

It is interesting that now a days, on smaller motors, people have done away with rotary converters and have gone to solid state inverters (Variable Frequency Drives) to power the 3 phase AC motors they may have on machine tools they may have around the shop. The advanatges are better efficentcy, a more balanced ouput and easily varied speed - not to mention lower costs. Welding is going down the similar path with the advent of inverter based machines. The efficentcy is better (lower input current), the output is controlled better (arc stability/quality) and enhanced control over weld parameters.

Now this in no way implies that single phase is an acceptable power source for high current continous duty welding. That will always be the domain of three phase machines inverter based or not. What I'm trying to point out is that if you don't have three phase available, then you seriously need to look at newer technology running on single phase to get the best quality at a reasonable price.

Thanks
Dave

Originally Posted by Nick Kent

You don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to run 3 phase. My father has a 3 phase set up for his 12" jointer that is run by a converter. It was set up by some electrical genius awhile back. He uses a small single phase motor with a belt to get this converter turning over and up to speed and then you give the converter power and it will provide three phase to the jointer. The whole setup takes up a 2x3' space tops.