Is there anyone on the board that is UK based that knows some one or somewhere that i can buy a cheap two post car lift.

Depends on what you want to lift I guess....

£2,000+VAT here:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/

I have seen ex-MOD garage equipment at:

http://www.witham-sv.com/

...but you might have to wait a while until one comes up.

Gareth

Another thing but this proabably a patrick call

Anyone now how to turn single phase into 3 phase

I am only wanting to lift a BMW so i can work on it and get another car under it.

You need a phase converter which you could buy (from Machine Mart too), but I expect Patrick knows how to knock one up with parts from a washing maching and some copper pipe!

I imagine getting a three-phase supply installed is quite expensive.

Gareth

1 to 3 phase requires a somewhat expensive device. Prices increase with KW output. Minarik (minarik.com) and KB Electronics (kbelectronics.com) are two that I can think of off hand. For 1 phase input you're probably limited to about 3hp (too lazy for conversion this AM). This KB unit is one to look at.

-Zeke

Not quite washing machine parts, but...

You need a 3 phase motor about 30% higher capacity than the maximum load you plan on using, and a number of motor run capacitors. The trick is essentially to use the capacitors to produce two out-of-phase signals from the single phase available, then use all three to run the motor. Then you use the motor windings as a phase regenerator, and connect your load to them. It's what you'd find if you took apart a commercial dynamic phase convertor unit, except in their case they'd be using a motor with no external shaft.

I've got a wiring diagram somewhere, I'll see if I can find it.

I was going to knock one up for my milling machine, but the found that a 2HP single phase motor I had kicking around the workshop was a perfect fit on the mount, and all I had to do was turn up some V-belt pulleys, so I never got around to it.

pca

Wow, Witham Specialist looks cool, I wonder if I can afford a landrover!

sod the landrover i'm having one of these

Best thing is to wait until their tender sales - *all* ex-MOD stuff goes through them now, no direct sales unfortunately.

Have a look at the last sale list and the price results - some stuff est. at £2,500 went for a thousand. Ok the army ones are a little more basic than the civvy models but they have real character and sometimes as many as four coats of paint applied by real soldiers!

I would have liked lot #124: ( pics)

In reply to:

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Supa Cat ATMP Mk2 fitted with VW Diesel. 3 speed auto, electric winch. All terrain carrier 833 HOURS ONLY Refurbed by ABRO in 2003 for service in Gulf RARELY AVAILABLE SV223

AH 13 AB
£12500

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The local boat scrapyard in Portsmouth had two ex-army tanks for towing the hulks along the sloppy muddy inlet banks - they had "Peace" and "Love" sprayed on them and were frequently parked up so you could see the coming into the city on the M27.

Gareth

You could just roll one out of the way:
http://www.liqui-technik.com

Saw this at the classic car show last weekend - stunned me for a minute, not as much as the cadillac limo I was inches away from buying being on show mind!

Damn that is too funny! I say so because my company Pro-Cut used to be the north american distributor for those things. Damn they were sketchy! It's amazing they're still in business. I think we sold about three of them. We had one at show in Vegas and had a rental car hooked up to one (SEMA show, I think). Well, a representative from the rental company happened to see it and we were banned from renting there _ever_ . Now we take the plates off the rental cars we use in the shows.

That post really made my night. Thank you!

-Zeke

You were at the Classic Car Show and didn't come and say hello to me?

Have you looked for a used one? I bought one on E-bay for $650.00. I got real lucky as it was only about 100 miles from where I live.

I'm not sure what your looking to do with 3 phase but most lifts are single phase. Besides the rotary type of converter that Patrick described you can pick up add - a - phase converters that just use capacitors, I believe. They are for smaller loads and do not produce true 3 phase but are adequate to run a small 3-phase motor.

http://www.phase-a-matic.com/StaticModels&Prices.htm