Very cheap Phase converter..questions

I'm in no way an authority on phase converters. Years back I had a small shop out of town and I had no 3 phase power. I bought a big Cincinatti shaper with a 5hp 220 volt 3 phase motor. I asked around an ran into a few resourceful tinkerers and one had a system that worked like this: He had an old horizontal pattern mill with a 3 phase motor. He used a big Capacitor to "Zap" the third leg to get the motor spinning and it would continue to run on the two 110 volt legs. The other set-up I discovered and the one that I used was a "Slave-motor" type. Ok, I had a 5hp 220 volt 3 phase motor on the shaper. For the Slave motor I used a 10hp 220 volt 3phase motor that I picked up at a salvage place for about 20 dollars (they have no resale value). I wired up two legs of the slave motor with 110 volts each single phase. Then I ran a wire from all three legs of the slave motor to all three legs of the shaper motor. I then had a small 1/2 hp single phase motor mounted next to the slave motor
with a V-belt and idler pulley. The purpose of the 1/2 hp motor was to just get the 10 hp motor spinning. Once the slave motor was spinning I would energize the two legs and it would take off on its own then I would shut down the 1/2 hp motor. The Slave motor would continue spinning and generate the third leg of current by way of induction or acoustics?. The Shaper ran great with this set-up. I even ran a big 300 amp miller production mig welder and it worked perfectly also. I used it for about 4 years like that until I moved. I cannot explain exactly how this worked but, it worked. And it was cheap. More than one electrician told me it was impossible and I would simply invite them over to see for themselves. Hope someone can use this info and would like to see you guys explain this more in-depth.

Ron


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