One thing leads to another...

[Pete O]

Another update; the contactor issue is sorted. I caught up today with my friend who designed the phase converter and supplied me with the components. I described the contactor issue to him and he said it sounded like the solenoid was running on the phantom phase, suggested I swap the feed wires around, rotating positions so I don't reverse the motor. Did that and Voila! the machine starts and runs exactly as it should, with the exception that it is slow to spin up in top gear. Also there is another minor issue in that the 'inch' switch, which is a momentary switch used for lining up the teeth when changing gears, now functions as a start switch rather than an inch switch. Nothing that I can't live with, and another friend who is a sparky with motor-control experience is coming to use my workshop next week so will get him to sort it.
Anyway, I got the machining done on my last feednut blank this afternoon, one minor glitch there too, the mounting tab ended up .003 oversize and is that much too thick to go into it's slot, will scrape it by hand and hopefully fit it up tomorrow. I've a lot to learn about this milling business.