Guys, I'm trying to find a power supply for my Gracey power case trimmer. Just to confirm my beliefs, you North Americans do have

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110V 50-60Hz AC

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yes??

My first attempt at hooking up the Gracey to power was less than successfull... The machine is specified as having about 1/10th of a horsepower (I forget the exact number, somewhat less than a 1/10th...), so I bought a powersupply 220-110V with about 80 Watts - since 1HP = 750W. Well, the machine hummed for a while, did not move and finally smoke came out of the powersupply... I guess the 1/10HP has to do with the power-output of the motor, and not of its power consumption to produce this effect...

I tried to call Gracey, but I got somewhat confused from talking to this otherwise fine gentleman. He did seem to mention numbers of Ampere required being around 16 (??). That would make the machine about an 1800 Watt animal (110x16)...

Any of you guys have Gracey handy, and would it have specifications written on it??

- mike

Wow, damn shame for the problems on a such a nice cutter. Yep, we are 110v RMS, and 60Hz. Really depends on circuitry.

Is the power supply one of those transformers? Your really running that thing on the harry edge of its compacity. It should have spinned the motor however at least for a little while.

There is nothing with a DC motor setup on the gracey that it should have problems with. Not sure if it is a AC motor on the gracey or a DC motor with a converter attached. Either way, it should have worked out fine. Tolerances on the AC motors should be within the 50hz region. I mean our power over here is not exactly 60Hz, so there is tolerances built in. There does come a point where the polls saturate. Lets say your frequency was off by 5 hz. This could be a problem. But doubtful. My bet was the power supply couldn't handle the wattage as advertised. Next time, try to help the motor turn a little by hand.

[ 06-03-2003, 22:21: Message edited by: bigcountry ]

Oops sorry, I was looking up some small motors here in my books at work. And forgot, an 75w motor is steady state. For startup you have a transient state where it needs 3 to 4 times the power to energize, so for this to work, you will need a power supply around 400 or maybe 500Watts to be safe.

Bigcountry, thanks a bunch for taking the time to talk to me about all this. I'm afraid it rather makes my head hurts at the moment... I guess I'll drag the machine up to this store where they are willing to sell me a mega-Watt/mega-$$$ power supply. If the Gracey runs, I'll buy, otherwise not... Probably something unexpected will happen - these things are never easy
- mike

You may find it more cost-effective to replace the motor. I've seen pictures of this trimmer, and it looks like a standard motor with no tricky mounting requirements.

Take the trimmer along to a good electrical place and see if they can't find a motor that will fit. This will likely be cheaper... I've done with some North American stuff in Sweden.

jpb

Well not sure it that has a DC motor on it with a AC-DC converter or a AC motor. I would say the first because its cheaper. Those motors are really cheap if you know people in electronics.

What I was saying before was think of it as starting to push a car in neutral. You need a bunch of power to start out and then it gets easier as the car starts rolling.

[ 06-04-2003, 22:02: Message edited by: bigcountry ]

mho:
While you are "fixing" your Gracey take the time to surf over to Bob Jones web site. Take a look at the carbide cutter for the Gracey. I got one of these. It will be the only cutter you and your heirs will ever need. And as a great plus it is MUCH easier to set up for different calibers. The best $25 I've spent. Well I am very happy anyway.
Also there is some discussion about replacement drive motors, recomending a 3000 rpm motor. As was said before you might be better replacing your motor with one that is compatible with your electric specs. Just a thought.

muck

http://www.bjonessights.com

Man, threads like this make me really happy I live in the US now. I lived in Spain as a child and blew out my plug-in electronics all the time because I would alweays forget that my american stuff had to be plugged into a converter.

I am glad also to see so many pro-gun people from Europe on this site. At my college we got a lot of exchange students from Eastern Europe and the all were so anti-gun/anti-hunting it was unbelivable. They looked at me like I had blasphemed when I told them I was going skeet shooting.
Take Care and hope all works out,
Carl

Muck, the carbide cutter sounds like a worthwhile upgrade. I'll do this - provided I ever get the machine running

Anvil63, sorry to hear that you are getting "political correct" students. Only one solution I can think of: introduce as many of them as possible to shooting, during their stay in the Land of Freedom. Maybe they'll see the light, and do the right thing when they go back to their home countries...

- mike

Hi anvil63

I admit that there are lot of anti-gun/anti-hunting folks in Europe, but I can tell you that there are not too many where I am in northern Sweden! Moose hunting is like a religion here -- I teach at a university and I cannot schedule lecture on certain days because they are officially set aside for the students to go moose hunting!

In fact, it is quite common to see students (and faculty like me!) carrying rifles on campus when we are on the way or coming back from hunting or the practice range. Gives me a nice warm feeling to walk across my university campus with my rifle and most people I meet want to hear if I've shot any moose this season!

My main dislike: many nice US mailorder gun companies will no longer mail parcels to Europe because of the extra hassles they now face to do so.

jpb

[ 06-06-2003, 20:31: Message edited by: jpb ]