3 phase motor to 120v

I picked up a few sewing machines at an auction but they all have 3 phase motors. I will be using these at home and only have 120. Looking online for information has just mode me more confused. I can buy 120v servo motors but would lose a lot of the options the machines are capable of. I'm reading about variable frequency drives but really dont understand them. Anyone have any history doing this?

 

Variable frequency drive like you said.
https://www.precision-elec.com/how-to-run-a-3-phase-motor-on-single-phase-power/

 

I installed a Rotary phase converter in my shop. works great, but it is for 208v equipment. I have Never seen a 120v 3 phase motor, or 120v 3 phase equipment.

 

You only have 120v? If you actually have 230v single phase, then I'd say to buy a rotary phase converter, as that would be a lot cheaper and less complicated than retrofitting three machines with vfd's.

 

Yeah I would assume those are 208/220V 3phase. You can use a rotary phase converter and turn 220 1 phase into 220 3phase. IF you dont what to do that you have to swap motors.

 

They are 230v which confuses me even more. Not much out there on them. The control panel only had 3 wires out which makes it even more confusing

 

230v single or 3 phase. Can you post pictures of the motor plates and any electrical info on the sewing machines?

 

I am guessing they are 3 phase, the other motor that I have not gotten cleaned up yet has 4 wires and is 3 phase on it . Here are some pictures of the plates. Thanks for the help so far

 

https://dealerselectric.com/115V-single-phase-input.asp
Pick your poison
I did a 240 sf to 208 3 phase conversion using a Teco VFD. For a 1hp Bridgeport mill.
115 is less common but certainly possible

 

It looks like you have a variety of stuff there.
Some of these have controllers? What do the plates on the controller show? One motor is dc, supplied by the controller. One plug only has 3 of 4 wires connected.
No quick, easy answers for this.

 

The first and 4th pictures are the controllers. The first 3 pics are of the one machine. The other 3 are of another machine. I never thought they would be 3 phase motors on them.

 

OK. So that first machine e looks like it is a single phase controller(230 or 120v, P1) and is a dc power supply.
The other one does indeed look like it needs 3 phase.
I think a rotary phase converter is the answer for the second one and any others that are 3 phase.

 

So the first one I can throw a regular plug on and go? Ok, I'll check out the ones GRH posted up for that one.
Thank you all for the input

 

They're little motors, so go with a vfd. You can get them fairly inexpensively. And they can do things a rotary can't..

What kind of machines? Surger? Blind stitcher? Just curious. I've only messed with older style machines, us blind, and Pfaff 5strings.

 

I’d go vfd used on eBay. Tons of machines 15+years are being dismantled now and they’ll have vfds, so the prices will be pretty cheap.

 

Fwiw....I ran my shop on a 10hp rotophase for several years. It worked fine. But now that I'm plug and play I'll never go back again. Stuff spins up faster and the machines definitely like being off the rotary. Unless I need a big 20hp roto, it's just extra stuff i don't need.

 

Automationdirect has inexpensive VFDs that will work.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

I'm pretty sure my tooling guy runs a bunch of his stuff on vfds he's gotten from them .

 

I will have 3 Juki's and a Pfaff. All lockstitch machines. 1 is a walking foot. The others straight needle. The Pfaff is a twin needle that I will use to put zippers in.

 

Do these machines run at a fixed rpm or does their speed vary? (I'm guessing they vary) Do you have 240 volt single phase power available?