Teco FM100

Okay i whent and bought one!! Now i have read that it must be wired directly to the motor? Yes-No?? The lathe i am using it on has a magnetic starter, should i bypass it?
I am not very good at the electrical end of this. so help me out ,i know you guys have a lot of experiance with these VFDs. Thanks Greg

Yes, wire directly and bypass the starter.

Mattdrag,
You need to wire the drive behind the starter. You could leave the starter there and use it ahead of the drive as emergency stop to shut drive down. The other option would be to take the starter completly out and just use the drive for control.
Good luck, Rick.

Motor starters have heaters, a protection device which opens the contactor in the event of an overload of any leg. If you are eliminating the starter an instead using a VFD to control the motor, does the VFD have the heater function? So, if it does, an installer simply fuses the input to the VFD, and wires the motor to it and away you go?
Another question I have is related to torque. I have a mill with variable belt drive. I may want to eliminate the pulley system and drive it with multy V belts, since the variable sheave stuff is worn out. It also has a two speed gearbox, which works fine and would remain in service. How much torque loss do you experience when slowing down the motor with a VFD? I am used to having full torque available for slow-speed uses like big fly cutters, etc. Will the VFD be a dissapointment compared to the belt system. When it worked, it worked OK. I should add that this mill has a 3ph motor and I already installed a phase converter to run it on 220 single phase since I have no 3ph power. Thanks.

Most vfd's are not full torque until they reach full motor speed. Torque can sometimes be adjusted for but normally the torque is related to motor speed.