Thread: Old linisher

A friend picked up this old 3ph linisher for me at an auction a few months back, but I've only just had a chance to collect it.

Not sure what the brand is, but the motor is Hebco, made in Melbourne, and its obviously come out of Holden at some point as it has a Holden "Y2K Approved" sticker on it

Plugged it into my phase converter and it started up with no bad noises or smoke so we're off to a good start. Didn't seem to slow down much when I fed it a bit of 50x5 flat bar but that could be mainly that the belt doesn't much bite left.

Been a while since I've used a proper linisher (only have a crappy 150W Ozito bench belt sander) but this one doesn't seem very fast. RPM is 1430, and the the drive wheel is 100mm so that makes it about 7m/s from my calcs.

Anyway - here's a few piccy's for your enjoyment:









Steve

Love the switch, like firing up the electric chair! Don't think it was in much danger from Y2K.

The electrics are complete overkill. A couple of mechanical interlocks on the door so you can't open it while the power is on, and can't turn on the big knife switch with the door open.
Even my mate commented on it: "Is all that electrical stuff just to turn on that little motor??"

I still can't tell from the motor data plate if its 3 or .3 HP.
Guessing it must be 3 as .3 is only ~250W and it feels like its got more power than that.

Yes, Y2K - those were the days!!
The world didn't end - but a lot of money moved out of businesses to IT companies/contractors....

Steve

Originally Posted by OxxAndBert

A friend picked up this old 3ph linisher for me at an auction a few months back, but I've only just had a chance to collect it.
Not sure what the brand is, but the motor is Hebco, made in Melbourne, and its obviously come out of Holden at some point as it has a Holden "Y2K Approved" sticker on it
Plugged it into my phase converter and it started up with no bad noises or smoke so we're off to a good start. Didn't seem to slow down much when I fed it a bit of 50x5 flat bar but that could be mainly that the belt doesn't much bite left.
Been a while since I've used a proper linisher (only have a crappy 150W Ozito bench belt sander) but this one doesn't seem very fast. RPM is 1430, and the the drive wheel is 100mm so that makes it about 7m/s from my calcs.

1430 RPM sounds like it was meant to be a woodworking sander.
For metal working it really needs to be running at 2850 or more RPM.
It can of course still be used at 1430 but it will wear belts faster especiallyr if/when heavy grinding.
You could probably easily get this speed increase with a VFD but you will have to disconnect all that switch gear.

I know some people like old switch gear but something like that takes up a lot of space.
If it was mine I would put a VFD in a small box low down on the back of the stand,
If you really wanted to keep the switch box you could gut the switchbox, and put the VFD inside it.

Hi Steve, Guys,

Looking at the size, I would guess at about 1/2 HP. I used to have one identical to that, but without all the metalwork around it, a four inch wide belt at 1440 rpm. A new belt would rip the scale off black bar in seconds. Mine was single phase, no switch gear, it just plugged in to a 13 amp outlet.

I'm definitely not attached to keeping old switch gear just for the sake of it.
I'm not a sparky, but been around enough of them to know that old mechanically complex switchgear is painful to maintain and troubleshoot.

I found a 3M reference online that recommends 20-25M/s belt speed for most metals. Given its currently running about 8 m/s I'd need a combination of more RPM and larger pulley diameter to get near that.
As you suggest, a VFD would likely sort out the RPM side and give a bit higher speed. Unfortunately the design of the actual belt support etc doesn't lend itself to a larger drive wheel, so unless the motor was happy to be run at 150Hz I probably can't get to an ideal surface speed with just the VFD alone.

Thinking for now I'll just grab a couple of decent belts for it and run it as-is.

I've also got an old 3ph belt driven 12" pedestal grinder that I rescued from scrap with the idea of converting it into a linisher. Not sure what RPM the motor is but being belt drive its easier to mess with the output RPM than this direct drive setup.
A nice DIY Radiusmaster clone would be perfect - but like everyone else, I've got too many projects not enough time

Steve

Originally Posted by OxxAndBert

I'm definitely not attached to keeping old switch gear just for the sake of it.
I'm not a sparky, but been around enough of them to know that old mechanically complex switchgear is painful to maintain and troubleshoot.

I found a 3M reference online that recommends 20-25M/s belt speed for most metals. Given its currently running about 8 m/s I'd need a combination of more RPM and larger pulley diameter to get near that.
As you suggest, a VFD would likely sort out the RPM side and give a bit higher speed. Unfortunately the design of the actual belt support etc doesn't lend itself to a larger drive wheel, so unless the motor was happy to be run at 150Hz I probably can't get to an ideal surface speed with just the VFD alone.

My experience with old motors is they are less likely to do well on a VFD so I doubt you will get the motor to do 150Hz, 100-120 is about the best you can expect.

If is is 415 volts, and 0.75 amps (from what I can see from the photograph) gives a HP = 0.722. So I think the "3" means 3/4 HP.

Note also the motor plate has "INT" on it, which I think means intermittent use.

Also, I cannot see a temperature rating of the motor insulation (temperature rise).

I use a small digital thermometer with a sensor on a flying lead attached to the bandsaw motor carcass to give me a clue as to how hot it is. They cost about $5.00, and the battery lasts forever.

After thought: Make sure you use a heatsink compound when attaching the thermometer probe to the motor - to increase the heat transfer, and therefore the accuracy, and to reduce the thermal lag of the thermometer. Jaycar sell it. Here is an example of several types and sizes they sell: https://www.jaycar.com.au/heatsink-c...-tube/p/NM2010

Originally Posted by A J in WA

If is is 415 volts, and 0.75 amps (from what I can see from the photograph) gives a HP = 0.722. So I think the "3" means 3/4 HP.

Note also the motor plate has "INT" on it, which I think means intermittent use.

Also, I cannot see a temperature rating of the motor insulation (temperature rise).

I use a small digital thermometer with a sensor on a flying lead attached to the bandsaw motor carcass to give me a clue as to how hot it is. They cost about $5.00, and the battery lasts forever.

Thanks AJ - 3/4 HP seems more likely that the 0.3 that I originally thought.

Good tip on the cheap thermometers. I've been meaning to get something similar for the idler motor on my phase converter. Think I'll grab a couple of those cheapies from eBay.

Steve