Shop Tour #1: Le-ca-getty Central. The Power House

[Dev Emch]

Here are some progress photos of my new electrical rework for the garage shop. The shed behind the main shop is called the power house and it contains all of the panels, the phase converter and the transformer. I also use it to house the huge quincy 120 gallon air compressor. Right now, I am using what is left over from the original service which is a night mare. Good thing I am comfortable around the juice.

The second photo shows the main service ditch which had to be dug by hand. Could not get any digging machines in here and they were not available anyway. I think I need to dig this portion of the ditch a few inches deeper. The main conduit is 3 inch PVC schedule 80. The 10 feet that go under the entry slab is a 2 inch schedule 40 which necks out to 3 inch. I wanted a 2 inch metal condulet on the wall and not a 3 inch metal condulet as there is a huge difference in size and expense. The use of 3 inch conduit is not needed but it sure makes pulling cable easier.

The first photo is the other end of the equation where the sevice pole is located. Notice my 100 amp shop service with its ABB meter? That will go once we get the wire in the ground. Dont want to start cutting stuff until its really needed and were only hours from the cut over.

The last picture shows my new service panels. There is a ton of work remaining on these! Pictured is the main 220 single phase panel with its main line disconnect. Next to it is my three phase panel for 245 three phase. All 220 three phase circuits come into this box. The box under it contains a huge ABB contactor switch which takes all THREE legs offline when three phase is not needed. The phase converter is hooked up to auto-start. A push button box in the shop turns this on and off like a light bulb. An indicator light tells you if the three phase service is hot or not. The on switch, the off switch and the light are all discrete bulletin 800 devices mounted in a die cast allan bradley box mounted to the wall. Push the green button and the shop's entire three phase system springs to life. Push the red button and I take the whole three phase system offline.

There is one more panel box not shown. This is my 440 volt panel which handles the few 440 dedicated machines that I own. This is fed by a square D transformer that can handle 30 KVA three phase. Works great for the oliver jointer and my two 440 milling machines.

Standby as I show you guys my shop tour.... for now, its not as pretty as Lou's shop but I consider it a work in progress. Future plans have it to build a dedicated timber frame woodshop. But I need to save a few more pennies until this reality comes true. For now, this is my hang out.

[Dev Emch]

Here are some photos of the items that I use on a temporary basis until they are all hooked up in the power house.

The first photo is the internal start/stop switch for my three phase power. The green button turns on the whole kit and kabuddle. If the orange light aint lit, then there aint *NO* power on any of the three main lines. NO L1.. NO L2 and NO wildleg L3. The red button takes it all down in one punch. That includes turning off the converter. The green button powers up the three phase service center and auto starts the converter. The whole shop is wired up just like a giant unisaw with a mag starter. I can add as many of these boxes around the shop as I wish as they all work on the same mondo contactor. The green switches are all wired in parallel and the red switches are all wired in series. This hook up actually takes place on a section of DIN rod inside the grey box that holds the contactor. This circuit is actually powered by a dedicated single pole 15 amp breaker in the first service center. The orange light is bright and you can see if your burning electrons or not makin three phase.

The second photo is one of my phase converter. The first converter I used was homemade from a 15 HP baldor motor. The german shaper needed MORE POWER as Tim says so I upgraded to a 10 HP Kay converter. Due to soft start and power utility issues, this was not good enough. So I returned the 10 HP Kay and upgraded that to a 15 HP Kay which is what you guys see here. This unit has the CNC noise circuits should they be needed. All that really is is a contactor that can take the run caps online or offline as needed by a current sensor monitoring the current flow in the wild leg. Proof that you dont always need run caps to function. This rig gets things running but I can still hear a slight groan on the start up of some of the big machines like the planer and shaper. This is caused by excessive voltage drop in a long line. This is being solved by changing the wire to a fatter gage copper, hence, the ditch digging exercise. It also takes me from a barely legal 100 amp service to a fully code compliant 200 amp service. Its about time!

The third photo is one of my square D three phase transformer. This transformer is a 30 KVA buck/boost transformer. Normally, its configured for standard 208 Y three phase and the seven taps on its high side coils reflect this. Because I start with 240 volts going in, I wind up with about 470 volts comming out. Not the best solution to get to 440 volts but it works. Truth is, many older olivers were set up to run on 480 volts anyway. At least, all the saftey stickers on my oliver jointer and Model D trecker milling machine stated this. If it becomes an issue, I may have to find another transformer to allow me to go down in voltage a bit. I got this one for a steal so that idea does not really appeal to me. I have run the oliver on this voltage and it does run fine without any overheating. But then again, what type of jointing operation does it take to overheat a 10 HP jointer? Ohh, maybe face jointing a 24 inch slab of oak with a 1 inch depth of cut. Yup, that may do it...... **MAY** do it!

So that is it for now as I am limited to posting three pictures at a time. The last installment here will be some pictures of my old compressor before I stick it back into the power house.

[Roy Wall]

and Tim the Toolman thought he craved power!!!!!!

Looking forward to this one ......

[Bob Noles]

Dev....

With that set up you should be able to sell power to the neighbors My goodness that is impressive.

[lou sansone]

hi dev

nice looking power house! I am spoiled by have 3 phase directly. I have told my wife that if we ever move the first thing to look for is the power lines on the road. I am sure that you setup is going to work great and you get to avoid the demand charge that I pay each month.

keep the photos comming
lou

[John Bailey]

Whew!!! Hair's standing on the back of neck just looking at the pictures.

John

[Mike Cutler]

Gee'z Dev. I work in a nuclear power plant, and I'm impressed. That's some nice looking electrical service you got going there.
Nice job all around. It looks llike a class installation.

[Corey Hallagan]

Very cool Dave! Looking forward to see the shop come together!

Corey

[Dev Emch]

And here are the last photos of my Shop Tour #1. Remember, my shop is a WORKING WORK IN PROGRESS. So these pix are only a snap shot in time right now. There is always lots to do and work to be done. Notice that there *IS* some sawdust about.

The first two photos are my massive pig of an air compressor. Its much larger than I need but I got an excellent deal on it at an auction so it will work for now. This is a 15 HP Quincy 370 pressure lube pump air compressor. The motor is a 15 HP Lincoln but this will be replaced with a 15 HP Baldor motor. The same motor that served me for years in my homemade phase converter. I just like the baldor better. Then I will ebay the lincoln motor.

The second photo shows the older style of pressure lube front on the pump. The new ones have a spin on oil filter. In the future, I may machine a new snout cover and add one of these. But as long as I change the oil, I should be O.K. Note the unloader tubes as well. The tiny little pressure gage is for oil pressure not air pressure. This pig can put out 54 CFM at sea level at 175 PSI. So it should be ample for sand blasters, air powered tools, water supply compression tanks, HVLP spray guns, etc.

Since we can post three pictures, the last picture is one of my welder. Again, I live life as a working work in progress. Right now, this sycnrowave 250 is set up to stick weld. I am working right now on some new running gear and the installation of an under body mount water circulator for the TIG torch. This welder was one of the last ones made with analog gauges. Many welders prefer this and I agree. Digital has its place but not that close to all the EMI interference! With the side off, I can knock out TV reception when I turn this thing on! It runs on 80 amps of 240 volt single phase. It can switch back and forth between AC/DC stick and GATW TIG welding. My torch is water cooled and I use an argon gas to shield. The circulator has a radiator, circulation pump, simple flow meter and connections for the TIG torch head. Inside this base is a gas flow meter, a rota meter to be exact, that monitors the CFM of shield gas being used. You control the amount of heat with a foot pedal. Its like driving your car. This way, you can prevent thin items such as car body panels from warping under the heat. A buddy of mine uses this same setup to build gas powered, supercharged rail dragsters which he and his dad race on the weekends. I am not that confident in my work yet to risk life and limb. But this welder does come in handy in making all sorts of things including a new super beefy base structure for my DeWalt RAS saw. The old one was to rusty and not strong enough for my tastes. So I welded a new one from 8 inch channel iron, angle iron and strips. It looks just like the old DeWalt base and will fool most folks. At least until they see that this base is made from 1/4 inch thick steel and weighs more than most complete DeWalt RAS saws!

Well, so much for shop tour #1. As I said, my place is a pig pen. Lots of incomplete and lots of work in progress and lots of work getting done. But you guys wanted some pictures. Sweets for the kiddies. I know, I like them too so hope you enjoy.

[Bruce Page]

And here I was, proud of the little 50 amp sub-panel that I put in my garage shop.

I’m looking forward to the next installment.

P.s. SMC allows you to post 5 pic's at a time.

[Jim Becker]

Very nice start to your tour, Dev. BTW, you can post up to five pictures per post...

[Seth Poorman]

Hey Dev , Nice powerhouse, Good setup, Are you hiring???

Seth..
P.S. Got any pics of the iron?

[Dev Emch]

Thanks for updating me on the picture count. For some reason, I thought I was limited to three per edit/entry. I download lots of photos from others and now I am uploading my own. I guess the disk space is going down now. But I cannot think of a better disk space consumer than shop tours and wood projects.

[John Miliunas]

Wow, Dev! Now I for sure can't wait to see the rest of the shop! So tell us: Do the lights in the entire neighborhood go dim when you power up a couple of your toys? I don't envy you for having to dig that ditch, but me thinks you'll have the last laugh! Good job.

[Rob Littleton]

Thanks for updating me on the picture count. For some reason, I thought I was limited to three per edit/entry. I download lots of photos from others and now I am uploading my own. I guess the disk space is going down now. But I cannot think of a better disk space consumer than shop tours and wood projects.

Not sure where you live but my lights in my house just went dim. Did you connect up the panel?

Thats some impressive power right there.

Nice