Looking for a cheap 12-lead 3ph motor

[strantor]

As the title says...

I'm having trouble finding dirt-cheap (brand new) 12-lead motors.
I need them for testing, and I'm probably going to burn them up.
I don't want anything used off eBay because I want to make sure I'M the reason they catch fire, and not because they were already abused.
The best price I can find is this one for $194.

Anybody know where I can cheaper ones in the USA?

Thanks

EDIT: oh yeah, and not to be picky, but if it were a Totally Enclosed variety, that would be even better.

 

[tcmtech]

I would say this place is worth looking at. They have a pretty good selection of new 3ph motors to pick from but it might be hit and miss on the cheap and 12 lead requirement. . https://www.surpluscenter.com/

I buy stuff from them all the time and have even been to their main center before in Lincoln Nebraska. It's a good place.

 

[strantor]

surpluscenter was my first stop. I dug through all they got and no dice. They do have some unbelievable deals right now though ($40-50) on 2HP motors [if you happen to need an oddball 380V or 575V motor].

 

[tcmtech]

Yea I figure you might have been there but every now and then I am surprised by who doesn't know about them.

Your 12 lead requirement in a small size motor is going to be the hard part to match. If it was me I would probably just go with a standard 9 lead motor and pull the other three out myself being the center connection that makes up the 10, 11, 12 leads is usually pretty easy to find and work with to make the last three lines available externally. I've done it a few times when turning three and 9 lead motors into 6 and 12 lead units.

The other option is to check around with a few motor rewind shops in your region and see what they have laying around in surplus. Pretty good chance someone like that would have a matching set of smaller motors they could configure for 12 lead setup on the cheap.

 

[gary350]

12 wires 3ph motors are not very common these days. Call Fox Brothers Motor Repair in Murfreesboro Tennessee. They use to have some.

 

[tcmtech]

12 wires 3ph motors are not very common these days.

The few smaller ones I have ever seen were on older machines that were intended for world market applications where they could be configured in a number of ways to work with most any local voltage.

Everything else I have ever seen was fairly large and then some and I suspect that they were intended for applications where they could use Wye/Delta switchover for soft starting of sorts.

Now for odd ball stuff the hardest one I have ever worked on was a near 100 year old lathe 18 lead unit that was designed to be set up using series/parallel Delta connections for 230/460 volt 60 Hz operation. Real head scratcher on that being it had no documentation to go with it and all the lead numbers did not match the standard patterns we use today.

The family who had it wanted it to run on single phase so I built one of my converter units for them thinking that I was going to be installing it on a old but normal 10 HP three phase lathe motor. Cripes when I opened that electrical box and found it was set up 480 volt and that motor had 18 leads of which none were hooked up on any normal 480 volt feed configuration I was familiar with................

 

[gary350]

Motor repair shops take in old motors all the time that work fine but have a broken base so they can no longer be bolted down. Some motors have damaged shaft bent or damaged key way. Motor shops sell them to scrap metal companies. Motors fall into the mixed metal category, copper, aluminum, steel, cast iron, are only worth about 5 cents per lb at the scrap yard. Go to all the motor shops you can find ask them if they have junk motors they will sell you. I bought a brand new 5 hp motor it fell off the truck and bent the shaft. It was a $500 motor I got it for $2. I hit the shaft with a 4lb hammer several times and bent it back almost perfect. Then I had to file off the hammer dents and it was a good motor. I have a 3 hp motor running an air compressor. I have a 2 hp running my lathe. I have a 5 hp running a hydraulic press. Most of the 12 wire motors are in a higher voltage range 480/600 volts. You will be very lucky to find a 12 wire motor not many people use them these days. All the high voltage motors are in coal mines 5000 volt AC motors are very small and light weight. A 100 hp 5000v motor running coal mining equipment is not much larger than the average 5hp 240/480 volt motor with a 4" diameter shaft.