Festoon ideas for an electric WM

[Dave Shepard]

I am in need of a few ideas on how to festoon the wiring on the new mill. It is a WM LT40E15. I would like to home build it if possible, the kits in MSC are about $900, and I think I could make it work with a cable and pulleys. I am off to search Bibbymans photo gallery, there must be a photo of his in there somewhere. ;D


Dave

[Furby]

Uni strut/barn door track and trollies will work.
Or if you have the room, a swinging arm as in the do it yourself car washes.

[Dave Shepard]

That would be quite the arm at 45' of travel. ;D The first stage of this mill is temporary, so it wil have to run on a cable strung between two posts, I think. When it gets moved into a building I think the door track may be the ticket. Thanks for the ideas.


Dave

[Furby]

Only thing about the cable is the sag and the mess when it snaps.

[JimBuis]

I knew you "Mizer" devotees were convinced, dedicated, even cheerleaders, but comparing a sawmill to flowers really is..........flowery praise. ;D :D

fes·toon      /fɛˈstun/ [fe-stoon] –noun 1. a string or chain of flowers, foliage, ribbon, etc., suspended in a curve between two points.

Jim

[pineywoods]

I don't have electric, but I had the same problem with a super=long sawdust hose. Stole this idea from a neighbor up the road. String a clothes line on poles so it runs the length of the mill plus some over run at each end. Put some small pulleys on the line and suspend the cable from the pulleys.  works fine for me and the hose is up out of the way. BTW the line needs to be as tight as you can get it.

[sparks]

Actually I ththink he was more toward this definition:     festoon - a curtain of fabric draped and bound at intervals to form graceful loops.
He wants to put the incoming power cord on a cable and pulley system. The electrical cord will have multiple loops so that it gets pulled evenly down the cable. At one end of the cable will be a spring attached to the first pulley to help pull the electrical cord back down the cable without binding.   Thanks all.

[Woodwalker]

Y'all gonna have to promise not to laugh;
I've got one end of a 30' or better run of SO cord attached to an elevated bracket on the mill head. At the far end of the mill the cord is attached to a non-movable point, then continues on to the source.
Running parallel to, a few inches higher and about 3' to one side I've got a 3/16" stranded cable running the length of the shed. Each end of the cable is connected to the shed with springs off a trampoline and the cable is sagged tight.
The festoon is simply several bungee cords spaced about three feet apart, one end taped to the SO cord and the other end hooked to the 3/16" cable. With the sawhead retracted, slack is removed from the SO cord and the cord is tight up near the purlins.  As the head moves down the track, the bungee cords catch the slack and the hooks on the cable end slide down the cable. Loops of the SO cord droop down about 18" – 2' out to one side and away from the sawhead.
I'm only running 30A conductor that powers head travel and height. Larger conductors are going to require a bit more support.

[sparks]

Here is a diagram for the travel specs of the mill.

[Dave Shepard]

Sparks, what type of cord do you recommend? I can get SO locally for $2.07ft/, SOOW (certified outdoor use) from MSC for $2.38. MSC offers a high flex for $17.23.

I knew I'd get some ribbing for using "festoon", (I looked it up too), but it is the appropriate industrial term for it.


Dave

[sparks]

If your running high volt 6awg is good up to 75 feet. If low volt 3awg is recommended up to 75 feet.  Thanks

[slowzuki]

I shamefully run mine just dragging back and forth in the sawdust.  Hasn't been an issue yet, I'm sure it will wear out a cable sooner.

[Dave Shepard]

sparks, this isn't the first time I have heard of 3awg wire in connection with Woodmizer, but where do you find it? In fact, I have never heard of an odd size electrical wire. I have a ton of 4 guage, but I doubt it would be flexible enough for this application, despite it being the same makeup as the 6guage I have used (flexible rubber). The 15hp FLA is under 40 amps@230, which should be handled easily by 6guage, unless I am misinformed.


Dave

[submarinesailor]

Back a few years ago while working as an Engineer Tech at the new Pentagon Heating plant, we had a punch list item that they never got around to fixing.  The interlock between a dual feed motor control center was installed all wrong.  To fix it, we needed to de-energize the complete MCC.  But, the problem was, we could not shut down it down because of the chillers.  Had an AC load of about 3000 tons at the time of repair. So,we needed to run a chilled water recirc pump and they all were feed by one side or the other of this MCC.  So the boss had me come up with an extension cord for this project.  A 200', 3 phase, 00 AWG SO extension cord. Boy that thing was heavy!!!!!!!  We wired it to the line side of the motor bucket and over-rode it to on.  Worked like a champ.  If I remember correctly, we ordered it from MAGNUM CABLE in SOLO, OH.  A 200' 3 conductor with ground, 00 AWG extension cord – dang that thing was heavy.

Bruce

[Dave Shepard]

The roll of #4 I have must weigh 500, I'd hate to think what that weighed. I'd also hate to think what that much AC costs.

Not too far from me a paper company shut down operations in a factory building and removed all the equipment. They converted a very small portion of the building over to offices and had to UPGRADE the electrical service to satisfy the needs of the computers and AC. When this mill was first built it was powered by a 1/4 mile long rope off a water wheel!


Dave

[eamassey]

I take it you have a 3 phase motor, my book calls for 42 amps @ 230 volts.  #8 AWG copper is rated at 55 amps (90 degree C rating), BUT, the allowable 2% voltage drop requires a move up to #6 AWG copper.     Flexibility, is primarily a function of the wire counts- you do need a fairly high count, certainly NOT 7 or 19 wire. Also, some insulations are remarkably more flexible than others.  Type SO cable is fairly flexible.  Also, the very best cable would be special high-flex flat configuration cable, mounted to bend on the weak axis.  The festoon system is fairly easy.  Start with a tight galvinized steel cable- thread through a number of steel rings-- attach the electrical cable to the bottom of each ring with simple cable ties.  A good festoon scheme would be a hanger (ring) attachment every three feet.  When the festoon is all the way in, there will be loops hanging down 18"- and the cable will be nearly straight at the extreme other end.  Don't forget to start the loop hanging 2 or 3 feet behind the first point (it will take some lateral length to stack up all the rings and loops). 

I have done this myself- and seen it done many times, places, and ways.  I much prefer a festoon system over the "rotating arm/roller/spring to pull slack" systems.

[Dave Shepard]

My specs show 36.6 FLA for a 15 HP@230v. Oh well, 6wire should handle it. The MSC catalog shows three foot coils in the retracted position, and about an extra five feet of room to coil the festoon, i.e. a 50' festoon has a working travel of about 46 feet. Thanks for the input.


Dave

[sparks]

We had to special order the 3awg. It is a heavy cord. You need to have a pretty durable pulley system to handle the weight. I heard of a guy who used 4awg with no problems.

[jim blodgett]

Thanks for the link to this thread, Dave.  This is exactly what I was looking for.

[bandmiller2]

A-yup Dave festooning is the proper term probibly the best simplest way to do it.Outfits that sell and service overhead cranes have dandy little pulleys that ride on a wire cable and clamp the wire.Much cheaper way is to buy small pulleys at the hardware store ,1/4 "steel cable,loop the cord and fasten to the pulley eye with wire ties.Try to stay away from plastic coated elect. cord to stiff when its cold,rubber is best.Frank C.

[Dave Shepard]

I'm using 6/4 SO for our Wood Mizer. Not the best wire but flexible enough for the application.


Dave

[Cypress Man]

Hey Dave,

I ran into the same problem two years ago when I went electric.  Look at my photos and you'll see just what you are talking about.  I've never had one problem with it in two years.  It works great.  Let me know if you have any questions.

                                                                                                                                             Cypress Man

[Dave Shepard]

Don't you just love electrc mills? No gas, no problems with cold weather, just turn the key and go.

Cypress Man's 'lectric mill with festoon:



Nice loader. I'm an IH nut. ;D


Dave

[Bibbyman]

You got to watch you words here on the Forum.  I used "exfoliate" one time and caught all kinds of grief.   ;D

[bandmiller2]

Dave the mill work at fridays is a LT70 electric we have it in a barn with high celing the cable just hangs down from the center of travel its not in the way and works so good we forget all about it.Oh with the price of copper wire I'd just use what I had if its close,if its heavier OK. Frank C.