New guy from UK
 

Hi I am Dave from near Oxford in the UK. I am now retired from the Formula One Industry. Ex Lola, Renard, Benetton, Arrows, Renault, Lotus,Ferrari. I worked in R&D laterly on seven post rig testing/circuit simulation. Many years ago I had a bodyshop, but always wanted to do proper metalshaping, rather than bash it straight and skim with lead or filler.
I have studied the work of the French Art Deco coachbuilders and wanted to be able to replicate their work. Having made some panels for my E-type Jaguar I have got the bug seriously and can't stop buying kit. I am currently making a larger steel fuel tank for my Norton Commando using a stump,sandbag,E-wheel
TIG welder and bead roller. I have just bought an old Vibro Shear nibbler and am about to make some dies for it and convert to single phase power.
I Hope I've not rambled on too much.
Regards Dave

hi dave, keep rambling sounds an amazing career! how many of us would love a career in F1 me included...

Hello David and welcome to the site.

Fantastic background.

Please share some pictures of your tank.

Jere

Welcome to the forum, Dave :)

Hi Dave - kit is good :) Welcome to the forum and look forward to seeing some of your projects. We all love pictures and please don't be shy in posting even if you have some fails. The newbies of us (like me) all learn from these things. Are you putting a VFD on the shear? In an autoclaved CF housing of course!

Hi Dave welcome to the forum
Peter

thanks for welcome
 

Thanks for the welcome guys.

I'll post some pictures and details of the fuel tank real soon.

I am fitting a VFD to the Vibroshear. As it had a 400v motor, not a dual voltage one, I am fitting a dual voltage motor, so I can use a simple 240v 3ph output inverter with my 240v single phase supply. I don't really need it but got a severe case of machine envy from seeing what other folks have in their shop.

Cheers

Look forward to the pictures of the tank David (and the bike - a classic!)

I'm not really up on electrical stuff, but my basic understanding of a VFD (well the ones we seem to get in New Zealand) is that it takes the 240v single phase input and then with a combination of voodoo and witchcraft, variable control 415v 3 phase falls out the other end? Lots of people seem to use them on smaller 3 phase lathes and I don't think they have needed to change out the motor. But I am from Barcelona...

Don't get too hung up on gear David. I've got most of the kit now as I have the space and have built a fair bit of it myself, but I have two local gods who turn out stunning classic race car and warbird panels with next to no gear. I feel positively guilty each time I visit them.

But sod it, I do want a reciprocating machine :)

VFD for 3 phase
 

Hi Richard
If I wanted to keep the original 400v motor I would need to buy an inverter and converter. This steps up the 240volt single phase mains to 400volt so the inverter can send out 400v 3 phase. The cost of this is similar to a simple inverter and new motor. As my motor is 48 years old, I went for the new dual voltage motor.

Cheers

Hi David

Like I said... "I from Barcelona..." :)

Thanks for the clarification.