As far as power supply I can use either. What is your recommendation?
As far as the original motor size and pulley size, I do not know, when I purchased the lathe it did not have a motor.
Yes it does have a two step pulley.
The vfd; no I have not purchased one yet. I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row before I purchase the motor or the vfd. What are your recommendations?
I will be using the lathe mostly for model steam engine work. The reason for the vfd is to give me greater versatility.
Sent from my LG-D950 using Tapatalk
The brand-spanking-new 10" "Toolroom" SB I helped install (leveling, leg bolting & shims) for our JR HS / HS Industrial arts shop around 1959/60 came with a 3/4 HP 3-Phase motor. It could "chirp" its leather belts, especially when push-button reversed on-the-fly, rolling the chuck across the shop floor until the Instructor and I worked up a sort of "washer" placed at the mounting shoulder that put a stop to the kid games. 26 Ga Aluminium or galvanized IIRC.
You won't need any more power than that, and you won't REALLY need a VFD, either.
SB gave the machines rather a good and useful selection of mechanical ratios, proven in long years of use across "many, many" SB's and all manner of end-luser choices of materials and turning applications.
Works well to JF adapt to what SB shipped, put scarce cash into tooling or workholding instead of a becoming Mother and minder to a VFD that has but about five-percent the useful life of the rest of the lathe.
There is enough total rotating mass inertia in motor, drivetrain, spindle, and workholding that 1-P motors are "smooth enough".
Keeping 3-P IS nicer for fast reversing, in which case any decent RPC, DIY included, is box-of-rocks dumb, but durable waaay beyond VFD life spans.
And Oh, BTW? It's only a SB.
Start biased to the "economical" side. You can ALWAYS upgrade it, later... IF there is a compelling reason for it.
Some of those "upgrades" mean trading for a different make of lathe entirely, so no need to make this into a moon-shot grade project.
After all, SB did not.
KISS