This one I'm rather hoping will be right up your street Bob.
Today I went to see a good quality lathe, an original Woodfast, made in Australia, before Record starting badging them and making them in China.
Its got a 1HP 3phase motor and an inverter and its broken. It's previous owner, a member of our turning club is deceased and I can acquire it for a sensible sum. Clearly if I cant fix the motor/inverter issues there's not much use for it.
Now the caveat for this is that I know nothing about motors, a complete and utter dumbass! I feel vulnerable because I'm in uncharted territory and if I cant get confidence there is a solution at a sensible price then I wont be buying it. However, on all the other levels its a great lathe. 18" throw and the spindle is a rock solid MT2 with a decent stand, decent indexing etc. So its a chunky machine, very well engineered, just a busted drive.
Now to the technical:
we can get the motor to just turn when switched on. The inverter comes up with an LED message of ready and then it will turn the spindle. The moment you try to turn up the revs, it stops and the code err (for error) is displayed. It then wont work again until switched off at the mains and powered off....then start all over again, rinse, repeat.
I don't know if the inverter is knackered, or the motor, or both, and have insufficient knowledge to go through a diagnostic procedure. Gut feel says that because the motor actually turns the spindle then its the inverter that's malfunctioning. My mate who knows more about these than I also thinks the inverter is the likely culprit.
Any idea what path I should take? I can unscrew the inverter and take it away but short of sending it to someone, wouldn't know where to begin.
Any help, very gratefully received and apologies in advance for not listening in physics approx. a 100 years ago when all this got taught!!!