Single Phase 2HP Motor

[Phil Procter]

Naomi

I have the same lathe and I too needed to fit a single phase motor as it came with a two speed three phase one.
The one I fitted was a good old British 2HP motor as you are asking for, this lasted about 20 years before it gave up the ghost and all I could find at the time was a 1.5HP replacement. This was never really up to the job and would stall if the lathe was very cold.

I recently needed to turn a 12" cast iron flywheel for my model mill engine, the lathe was really too fast for this so I decided to fit a 2HP three phase motor and run it from an inverter.
This is the best decision I ever made, it runs much smoother with hardly any vibration at all, and I can go down to about 10 RPM spindle speed with it.

The brand new motor was then only £76 on ebay, and I already had the inverter, but these can be bought relatively cheaply for a similar price to the motor these days.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172195074657

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2HP-1-5KW-...cAAOSwYmZXJGmR

Would I ever consider a single phase again ?...........No Chance
Phil

[SimonT]

I'd be cautious of the specific inverter in that link. The fleabay location is given as 'Portsmouth' but the seller has an address in China. The description is in broken English which suggests the location is incorrect, possibly just put there to make sure it pops up even if the 'UK only' option is selected.
If the details aren't 100% then the product is always in some doubt, for me. I'd much prefer to buy something from a British company (manufacturer or importer) to be confident of meeting most UK standards and have some sort of come back if needed.

Simon.