Electricity Conversion from the States

[xray]

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Originally Posted on: Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:20 pm

Quick question for any sparkies out there.
Scenario. Going to get a bandsaw from the states. Motor is 220v 60htz. Electricity is now on in shed with 15amp power outlets. What do i need to do to gt it t work with our elctricity here? Can i have a sparky change over the cord from the motor? Any answers welcome
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[Puff]

Hertz is frequency. The volts etc look fine but check with your local power authority/supplier as to what "frequency" you are getting.

[Puff]

Sorry mate the chord has nothing to do with it -tis what flows through the cord and if your power supply is alternating at that frequency you should be fine. If it's big grunt/wattage/horsepower you might need a heavier fuse/circuit breaker. Have a natter with a sparkie at the pub or the sports club - usually reasonable sorts.

[liam_fnq]

Quote:
"Hertz is frequency. The volts etc look fine but check with your local power authority/supplier as to what "frequency" you are getting."


You are getting 50hz. The same as me and everyone else in Australia (as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East and I think South America. Pretty much everywhere that's not the U.S.)

The speed of the machine is dictated by the supply frequency. I think at 50hz a 60hz designed machine will run slightly slower.

The best way to work out if this will be a prob is to talk to someone who has American machines run through a 110v/240v transformer. They have done the 60hz machine on 50hz supply experiment for us. I think Bob does this. could be wrong.

Quote:
"Sorry mate the chord has nothing to do with it -tis what flows through the cord and if your power supply is alternating at that frequency you should be fine. If it's big grunt/wattage/horsepower you might need a heavier fuse/circuit breaker. Have a natter with a sparkie at the pub or the sports club - usually reasonable sorts."


The cord is quite important. It wont fit in the outlet if you don't get it changed Any sparky can change it for you. the going rate is a six pack.

15amp outlets should be on their own circuit with a dedicated (prob 20amp) circuit breaker. It going to have to be a big bandsaw to trip this.

let us know how you go
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Cheers, Liam.





Cairns Loon.

[Bob Connor]

I've got small 110 volt sanders running through a transformer.

Haven't really got anything to compare against but they all seem to do the job.
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Bob, Geelong
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If Becks are a sponsor next year I guess we'll just have to give East Augusta a miss.

[jeffhigh]

This may be worth looking at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_phase

[xray]

thanks fellas, im just checkingout the possibility of importing a saw from the states and need to look at customs next after the electricity thing. Greedy friggas anything over 1000 and its open season on importers. cheers forth heads up, as usual liam you have been most helpful.
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Ability is of little account without opportunity.

[Kim]

Xray,

I could not imagine what freight will be for a one off the size of a bandsaw. Machinery importers generally buy per shipping container full from a manufacturer or smaller shops will form a coop just to bring stuff in by the container and then split it out as this keeps cost down. Unless you go through a freight handler in the USA that will pack and charge for only a portion of a seatainer, I think you will find bringing in such a large machine will not be viable once you add freight and customs, and just remember, duty is calculated and payable on what you paid for the item + freight + insurance + any other handling and inspection fees etc, and once they have that totaled, they then add GST on top of the lot..'including' their own duty and fees. Brutal stuff.
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[Localele]

I can't imagine you will even get close to a reasonable price to ship one saw over.Bearing in mind that most of the saws in the US come out of China and Taiwan and are available here in different colours it would seem to be easier to buy one here.
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Cheers from Micheal.

Remember the "5P Rule".
PREPARATION PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE.

[tim mullin]

I run a variety of North American machinery here with 110-120, 220-240VAC motors. The lower voltage stuff gets run at 110VAC through a 1500 watt (edited content, more correctly described as 1.5 KVA) step-down transformer (cheaper if bought in NA). My tablesaw has the usual dual-voltage 110-220 motor (common on NA machines above 1HP) and is set to 220 (wiring diagram usually inside the motor's connection cover makes it easy for anyone to set the voltage jumpers). On a 15-amp outlet, you can easily connect up to 2.5 HP saw with no worries.

Motors rated at 60Hz will run at 5/6 their rated speed on 50Hz. For example, NA machinery motors are typically 1750 rpm on 60Hz. With the 50Hz supply in Australasia (and most other places with 220VAC domestic supply), they run at 1400 rpm (does that figure sound familiar? It should, as that's a typical speed for motors sold in Australasia.) Despite running slightly slower, I've not noted any difference in power or performance.

So, on your bandsaw, all you need to do is change the plug on the cord (if the machine is supplied with one). Any sparky can do it, but it's not rocket science. Just make sure you connect the green wire to the ground lug. Beyond that, a motor could care less about how you connect the other two. Machines purchased in North America are frequently supplied without connection cords, as there are a variety of ways to connect them to supply (which is often switchable between 110 and 220).

I also run other stuff in the house through step-down transformers. About the only problems are with older applicances with AC motors, such as turntables and antique clocks, where the speed is set from the supply Hz. Most other stereo and clock motors are DC and could care less. AC-DC rectifiers seem happy at either Hz.

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