Wadkin 12x7 planer thicknesser 3 phase to 240v?

[meccarroll]

Hi all just been thinking about changing my 12" planer thicknesser, it's a 240V Holtztech 12" over and under.
My Holtztech is a fantastic surface planer but the thickness capacity (like many newer P/T) is limited to 3mm each pass. If I have two or three doors to make it can take me all day to thickness the wood so I was thinking about buying an old wadkin P/T. the only trouble is the old Wadkin P/T are three phase and use separate motors for the planer and feed operations.

Does anyone have any ideas how to convert one to single phase or what invertor would work with both motors etc. I'm not that great on phase convertors.

The reason I'm sold on a wadkin is I've used them in professional workshops and found them to be very capable.

Cheers Mark

 

[9fingers]

Should be doable Mark but there are a number of points that need ironing out before i can give you a “do this” “buy that” type reply.
Getting the right overload protection for both motors will be important as will interlocking the cutter and feed motors so it stops feeding if the cutter motor stops.
I’ll need to know more about the specifics of both motors to recommend the best approach.
Ideally the cutter motor should be dual voltage so sticking to a newer Wadkin model should improve the chances of this.
Sounds an interesting challenge and one to keep my little grey cells active.

Reading my motor paper link below should give you a bit of background knowledge. Skim read it first don’t worry if you dont understand it all.
Bob

 

[meccarroll]

Should be doable Mark but there are a number of points that need ironing out before i can give you a “do this” “buy that” type reply.
Getting the right overload protection for both motors will be important as will interlocking the cutter and feed motors so it stops feeding if the cutter motor stops.
I’ll need to know more about the specifics of both motors to recommend the best approach.
Ideally the cutter motor should be dual voltage so sticking to a newer Wadkin model should improve the chances of this.
Sounds an interesting challenge and one to keep my little grey cells active.

Reading my motor paper link below should give you a bit of background knowledge. Skim read it first don’t worry if you dont understand it all.
Bob

Cheers Bob, I'll take a look at the link. I have not done a lot of joinery over the past two years but I have some coming up so looking at the weaknesses in my equipment once again.

 

[Windows]

Sorry for my ignorant questions: it sounds like you want to switch machines to take off more than 3mm in a single pass, does that increase the risk of tear out? Is there an advantage to taking off more with the thicknesser vs, for example, sawing closer to final size and reserving the thicknesser for the final 3mm? Is it to reduce setup and tool switching time?

 

[Trevanion]

I assume you're talking about the BAO/S? A fair while ago now I was researching the exact same subject as I was looking at one and I came to the conclusion that it's a notoriously difficult machine to deal with when coming to converting it to single-phase as it's a nightmare to access the motors and the machine will have to be tipped over for easier access underneath. From memory, the thicknesser motor is dual speed which I think makes converting it to run on a single-phase supply trickier (Bob?)?

Another issue with the BAO/S is that they're usually ridden to hell and back twice over with no maintenance and the part that's always either broken or on its way out very soon is the screw and worm gear for driving the thicknessing operation. At around £1000 to replace both parts if you're buying them from Advanced Machinery Services, it could make any machine that has this part worn out a complete non-starter unless you got the machine for free.

Between those issues and the people I've talked to who owned BAO/S planers that found them finicky to work with, I instead went with a single-phase Multico NS surface planer and single-phase Multico TH thicknesser for around £850, but I put another £300 into fixing the thicknesser to a like-new condition. They take up a little more room than a combined planer thicknesser, but they are brilliant machines, the thicknesser has a retrofitted 2.2kw motor so it can hog off a fair amount without bogging down and the surface planer is also capable of a fair cut, the infeed bed can drop down to 25mm but that's mostly for the tenoning sliding table that you bolt to the side but I have surface planed narrower timber at 6mm depth of cut without much issue.

I've seen a couple of original from the factory single-phase BAO/S for sale recently and they were asking ludicrous amounts for them, upwards of £2500, they don't appear to be online anymore so they likely sold.

 

[9fingers]

Yes Dan, the feed motor is a Dahlander connected two speed motor that cannot be simply rewired to 240v delta so more cunning techniques are needed. I have the technology! CS1 (Cunning Scheme 1)

Hopefully a newer machine will have a rewire-able motor that can be run on 240v delta with a straightforward inverter.

If it wont allow rewiring (or the access is formidable) then a voltage converting inverter can be pressed into service for the whole machine with CS2 can makes sure the feed motor is protected.
I'm not having much luck in finding the power rating of the feed motor but likely 1hp? Cutter block motor is 3hp.

Not sure where Mark is located but quite likely beyond house call range from me so I'll need a solution suitable for remote control installation.

Bob
No stone un-turned, no cat un-skinned :lol: