Lathe Motor Question

First off please move if this is posted in the wrong place.

My lathe currently has a 1/2 HP, 1725 RPM 220 volt motor and I'm wondering can I replace it with a 6 HP, 3450 RPM motor that I have in the shop?

The old motor is an open design and has grease, cutting fluid, metal shavings in it. I was going to go buy a 3/4 enclosed motor then ran across the 6 HP motor while cleaning out a corner.

Why?????????

Good way to break something, unless it's some POS Chinese compressor motor that says 6hp but really it's maybe 1. Even then you's need to change pulleys to maintain original speeds.

As said, you have to figure out a way to get the motor speed reduced by half, and then you are going to have WAAYYY too much power on your small lathe. You will be very likely to break parts with a motor that big. The smaller motor will stall before it tears something up.

A big motor by itself wont break anything it runs. I could run my lathe from a 600 HP diesel engine and outside of the smoke and noise my lathe will run normally - until I attempted to USE more HP than my lathe could safely handle.

My lathe came with a 4 HP motor. I upgraded the motor to 10 HP when I had a job requiring real stock removal. It ran fine, no damage to gear or bearings though I probably made a couple tons of chips on the one job. Heavier cuts,greater feeds. Instead of 3/16 DOC at 0.015 feed per rev I took 5/16" at 0.022. I later sold the motor and re-installed the 4 HP.

A great big motor won't hurt a lathe but a stupid operator running it sure as hell will.

You can run your lathe with that 6 HP motor provided you re-pulley the drive - which can be a bigger hassle that you might think. But be careful of the extra power. Get too frisky with the DOC and feed or you may exceed the gripping power of your chuck or overload the gearing in lower speeds.I don't think you'll break anything but you may shear a key.

Thanks all. I will just buy a smaller motor. Just had the other laying around and thought I'd ask. I don't think I'm a stupid operator but since all I do is make buttons for lab test blanks that are fine cuts from titanium the larger sounds like more hassle then it's worth to re-gear.

If the six hp motor fits in there, I'd use it. The lathe was probably *designed* for that size
motor!