Looking for motor recommendations for my lathe.

[Redneck_Sophistication]

When I bought my machines from the millwright who owned them hadn’t got a motor for the McDougall 16x30.
He did have a motor for an all gear drill press he suggested could be used in conjunction with a gear box he had. I didn’t ask why not to run it on its own, not sure what his long term plan was.

What size motor would you guys run? Original plate said 3hp, would that still be good or underpowered fir a lathe this size? Don’t want this ball less if I do some big stuff.
should I worry about Rpms? Or is most motors in the same range?
Next I’ll have to figure single phase or 3 and a VFD, I thought I could find a 3ph cheap from someone swapping for single but there’s not much on kijiji, probably all in the scrap yard. I saw so many there my last trip

 

[John Conroy]

Where does the motor live and what kind of mounting is it designed for. What kind of belt drive system is it designed for? What is the intended spindle speed range?

 

[Tom Kitta]

I looked at lathe without reading and thought 3hp. Motor speed is almost certainly 1800 rpm (or like 1740rpm with slip). In rare occasions you got strange stuff like 2 speed motor.

3hp should work fine. You can upgrade to 5hp but anything above that is a waste.

3ph motors can be had for little money. Are you in Calgary?

 

[Redneck_Sophistication]

Strange a bunch of reply’s got deleted from the thread.

covered a few things.

3 ph motor probably cheaper.
I’m liking that idea. Could use the vfd to fine tune the rpms since I don’t have the original pulley. Gears for low speed, since torque dies off on low speed with vfd.

now to find at a half decent price.