I doubt I will ever want for swing or length between centers again...

[toploader]

I'm assuming this is a 3 phase motor? If you do go the vfd route, you need to get a VFD that is rated 33% bigger then the listed HP rating of the motor you want to run.

When I was sourcing a VFD for my 3 hp 3 phase motor for my knee mill the manufacturer said I needed a 5hp VFD to run my 3 hp motor at full power. You lose 33% of the rated horsepower of the VFD because you are only putting in two poles of power and three are coming out. A VFD can be bigger then the rated horsepower of the motor and be fine. But you will likely see poor performance out of one that is too small.

 

[compressorguy]

If you are using an inverter designed for 3 phase input on single phase this is very true. You must oversize it and additionally, you must override the "phase loss trip" for the unused input If you are using an inverter intended for single phase input, it is designed to operate at it's rated horsepower and no oversizing is required. That being said, inverters rated for 5hp output on single phase input are hard to find.

 

[kd4gij]

I doubt I will ever want for swing or length between centers again.
As your standing there with a 16" part in your hand scratching your head and saying " If only I would of got a bigger lathe"

 

[Doubleeboy]

Nice score on lathe. If you are a home shop guy and do little work, I suggest keeping your eye out for an AXA or BXA set up so you can get close and personal with the small size work. I have a 16" lathe, which I like quite a bit, but for small work the CXA is in the way frequently. A nice set up to solve that is an AXA on riser block, its small size lets you get close to part, swing tool post around without the corner getting in the way of chuck or part. I know a number of Monarch 10EE owners, half have AXA half have BXA, most of the guys with BXA wish they had AXA for the small work. I have BXA on my EE and CXA on 16" machine. I also use a homemade lantern post for certain tools for getting close, especially when using follow rest.

 

[Mwieczorek]

Thanks for the info guys. I ended up getting a 7.5 hp rotary phase converter. I could only find one or two 5hp VFDs that ran on single phase 220. It has plenty of speeds and I get along fine set speed on my other lathe, so I just wend the RPC route. Its been on hold for a few weeks, I am waiting for it to warm up a little more so I can prime and paint it before I move it into position.