Vfd

I looked into this a few years ago when I had a General 160. There were several companies in Calgary that sold the motors and controllers. At the time, cost put me off converting the lathe but there were no problems otherwise. I solved the problem by selling the General and buying a Nova.

A moderately cheap way is "buy" a used treadmill and put that motor and controller on the lathe

But that might not have enough power. I think that there is a limited amount of space for the motor in a Union Graduate. That's why it's important to talk to the guys in the motor supplier's. I cobbled together a 3/4HP motor with a jack shaft to run a General

160 and always had problems with vibration. I looked into getting a VFD set-up and ISTR it would have cost me about $700 for the motor and controller.