Powering a 1HP BLDC Lathe in a Van

erikmannie said:
I get two months vacation per year, and I go to vocational schools out of state. My wife only gets 1-2 weeks vacation per year.

So about 38-40 hours/week in school is great, but I am used to staying busy much longer than that. I don’t have anything to do on the evenings & weekends when I’m away.
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Does your wife want to come stay with you on weekends?
 
I wonder how it work if I had a battery bank: a certain number of Ah (corresponding to 4-5 hours of working on the lathe), charged and ready to go. A 4kW inverter wired to the battery bank powers the lathe until the batteries need charging.

I could charge the batteries in the motel room while I sleep. Bonus strength training for carrying a few batteries in and out of the motel room every morning & night.
 
My wife visiting me on the weekends is prohibitively expensive, and she would spend most of the weekend in transit. She works long hours, and actually needs the whole weekend to recharge.
 
The main argument for not having windows in the van is to prevent a thief from smashing a window and stealing tools.
 
Getting back to the battery bank, if I wanted 746W for 5 hours, that is 3730Wh or 310.8Ah at 12V.
 
If you're going with batteries just convert the lathe to a DC motor. But, if you're staying at a motel it might be worthwhile talking with management about having a parking space that you could run an extension cord to. I still think the trailer might be better suited than buying a new van. They can be locked up pretty tight and immobilized with a "boot" type device.
 
matthewsx said:
If you're going with batteries just convert the lathe to a DC motor. But, if you're staying at a motel it might be worthwhile talking with management about having a parking space that you could run an extension cord to. I still think the trailer might be better suited than buying a new van. They can be locked up pretty tight and immobilized with a "boot" type device.
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Good point about the extension cord. This idea would really shine in an RV campground.

I currently don’t own a vehicle, so I wouldn’t have anything to tow a trailer.
 
It looks like a good starting point for a battery bank would be four marine batteries in parallel.

I think four 12V batteries is about as much work space as I would willing to be able to give up.

I wonder if battery outgassing is an issue.

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