Fobco Star Restoration

[Co1]

Picked this up for £90 today, which I thought was a bit of a bargain. I’m working away from home at the moment, so the plan is to take a bit with me and fettle it in my digs to save me going to the pub every night!

Couple of problems straight off the bat:

It’s three phase and I really need to convert it as I don’t fancy running it off an inverter, I want to keep it simple.

Second issue is that I can’t get the head to slide down the pillar, or to move at all. It’s totally seized. Any thoughts or tips?

 

[Phill05]

Take off the pulley cover on top, run some WD40 around the shaft.
Release the locking leaver for the head and tap the bolt in to release spray some oil in, leave the leaver locked below to stop the head from slipping down, then block the base from turning and try moving the head left to right it should ease it spray some more oil around and you should get some up and down movement.

You can pick up a single phase motor easy and reuse the switch.

 

[Co1]

Thanks Phil, that worked a treat.

The base, table and pillar need a good degreasing and cleaning. What do people think about sticking them in the dishwasher?! The wife is away next weekend, so she’ll never know…

 

[Phill05]

"so she’ll never know"
You want to bet on that!!!

Pick up some Citric acid that will sort it out for you.

 

[flh801978]

Once you have used a drill with variable speed you wont want to back…
No removing belt cover and slackening belts
Always right speed for the drill in use
A vfd is only £50 or less..protects the motor will run in reverse also

Ian

 

[Co1]

Once you have used a drill with variable speed you wont want to back…
No removing belt cover and slackening belts
Always right speed for the drill in use
A vfd is only £50 or less..protects the motor will run in reverse also

Ian

I haven't to found one that cheap. Where are you looking?

 

[Sideways]

Once you have used a drill with variable speed you wont want to back…
No removing belt cover and slackening belts
Always right speed for the drill in use
A vfd is only £50 or less..protects the motor will run in reverse also

Ian

Rubbish.

A VFD is no substitute for changing belts.
Dial it down to 1/4 speed and you only have 1/4 the power.
You have none of the torque increase that you get from downgearing through the pulley ratios and which you need to twist a large diameter cutter in a drill.

I'm not knocking VFD's, I'm a fan and almost all my machines are driven with them, but the answer above suggests a lack of understanding of how they work and their limitations.

A 40mm Forstner bit needs a good deal of torque behind it.

 

[Sideways]

You can pick up a single phase motor easy and reuse the switch

I imagine with the age of a Fobco star, it'll be an imperial size motor so you can't just swap in a modern metric one without modifying the mount and boring or sleeving the motor pulley.
You should still be able to get a single phase imperial easy enough but you may have to pay a bit for it.

 

[Co1]

Thanks sideways. It is indeed imperial, I’ll keep my eye out on eBay.

 

[Fergie 307]

Rubbish.

A VFD is no substitute for changing belts.
Dial it down to 1/4 speed and you only have 1/4 the power.
You have none of the torque increase that you get from downgearing through the pulley ratios and which you need to twist a large diameter cutter in a drill.

I'm not knocking VFD's, I'm a fan and almost all my machines are driven with them, but the answer above suggests a lack of understanding of how they work and their limitations.

A 40mm Forstner bit needs a good deal of torque behind it.

Couldn't agree more.
No problem with using a vfd to run it but you want the torque to increase with slower speeds, exactly what you get from moving the belts.
Using variable speed from the vfd to slow it down does exactly the opposite.
So use a vfd by all means to be able to run it off single phase, but still use the pulleys to change speeds.

 

[Fergie 307]

Thanks Phil, that worked a treat.

The base, table and pillar need a good degreasing and cleaning. What do people think about sticking them in the dishwasher?! The wife is away next weekend, so she’ll never know…

Don't do it!
Different grease, all you will probably do is cover the inside of the dishwasher with gunk.
And she will most definitely know

 

[kinverkid]

I'm hoping you are going to regularly update your progress. I'd like to follow how the restoration goes.

 

[flh801978]

Hmmm its funny i spend all my working days working on motors and VFD's on small to massive machines > 5 million£

I guess i missed out the line once you have chosen a suitable belt ratio then the VFD will suit
i'm not suggesting that you can go from 1mm in hardwood to 75mm with the twist of a dial
but if its for wood the 2nd slowest ratio will suit from 20hz to 100 hz (so 200 rpm to 2000 rpm)
if metal the 1st ratio will suit ( 100 to 1000 rpm)
I've never needed to run a drill at 4000 rpm with the fastest ratio
and a fobco may even struggle with a 40 mm forstner bit with only a 1/2 hp motor