Little Giant Motor Change

[SoCal Dave]

The current little giant hammer I'm look at has a 2 horsepower, three phase, 1800 rpm, 220/440v, 52 amp motor on it. My shop is at my home and I don't have three phase. Can I replace this with a 2 horsepower, single phase, 220v, 1800 rpm motor without running into issues like not enough power, or not strong enough which will eventually burn up the single phase? I know very, very little about motors. My initial thought was that they put a 3 phase motor on the hammer for a reason, because of the issues I mentioned above. There could be others that I'm not aware of. I would prefer not to use a phase converter. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

[peacock]

A 2 hp single phase 220 volt will be fine. The 3 phase amp is most likely 5.2 not 52. 1725 or 1750 rpm is what you want. You may have to get a new pulley as the shaft size may be different on the new motor.

[macbruce]

Assuming it's a 50lb'er a 2hp single ph will work fine, I've run them on 1 1/2 hp without any issues. If it's a 25lb 2hp is too much.

[SoCal Dave]

Where would I get that kind of motor and what would be an average price?

[macbruce]

BALDOR CM3558T 2 HP 1740 RPM 145C 1PH
Grainger, msc, tek supply just to name a few.........Baldor makes a good motor.

[peacock]

surpluscenter.com around $300

[ciladog]

Check into Variable Frequency Drives with single phase input and three phase output. It will cost less than a new motor and you will have speed control.

[WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith]

I have single phase 2 hp 1800 rpm motors for $284.35 or a VFD for $448.00 Both wit free shipping to you. while the VFD is more expensive than the motor you could use it to also run a belt grinder or other piece of equipment with a 2 hp 1800 rpm motor. The other advantage is that you can control the speed of the motor with the VFD form 1 rpm to 3600 rpm. This might be an advantage on the hammer but definately for a belt grinder. If needed a fwd/rev switch is $35.00.