[TheForge] Phase Converters

[RIES NIEMI]

Although in my current shop I have 3phase, at various times I have not, and
I have used similar non rotary phase converters. The ones I used were
actually from MSC, and they were kits, where you soldered together the parts
yourself, for a small savings in cost.
Anyway- my 3 1/2hp cold saw always ran just fine on a static phase
converter.
On the other hand, I could never get my 7 1/2hp compressor to work at all
with one, and I ended up using a smaller single phase compressor for the
entire time I had that shop.
I think for a larger (over 5hp) motor that gets a lot of use, you should
bite the bullet and get a rotary phase converter, and if you are going to do
that, you might as well just go a little bigger and run all your 3 phase
stuff off one big one. Of course, if you only have a few small 3 phase tools
which get intermittent use, it might make sense to use individual
converters, as a rotary one involves a motor running all the time.