I now have the lathe wired through a TECO JNEV variable frequency drive. After reading dozens of posts on VFD's I was very concerned about how difficult it was going to be. In the end, hookup and programming was actually pretty simple and I would recommend going that route.
Here is how I did the hookup:
1. I unhooked the motor wires from inside the electrical panel, but left them attached to the motor. Then I took those wires and connected them to the VFD. With that simple step, the lathe could be run from the VFD.
2. Next, I ran some eight strand wire, I think 16 or 18 guage, from the VFD to the lathe external controls. I think this was sprinkler control wire from Lowe's.
3. Three of the control wires were connected to the existing forward/stop/control switch.
4. Three of the remaining wires were run to a potentiometer that I bought from Radio shack. I dismounted the factory start button and used that hole to mount the potentiometer.
5. I then made two parameter changes to allow for the use of the remote forward/stop/reverse switch and the remote potentiometer.
That's it...pretty simple and straight forward to get everything working with the VFD!
I did make some optional parameter changes from top and bottom frequency and also for acceleration and deceleration which took all of two minutes to accomplish, but that was an optional step.
In short, the VFD solution is actually much more simple than I thought it would be. I think the whole setup cost me less than $250 so it is probably the cheapest solution as well.
Here is how I did the hookup:
1. I unhooked the motor wires from inside the electrical panel, but left them attached to the motor. Then I took those wires and connected them to the VFD. With that simple step, the lathe could be run from the VFD.
2. Next, I ran some eight strand wire, I think 16 or 18 guage, from the VFD to the lathe external controls. I think this was sprinkler control wire from Lowe's.
3. Three of the control wires were connected to the existing forward/stop/control switch.
4. Three of the remaining wires were run to a potentiometer that I bought from Radio shack. I dismounted the factory start button and used that hole to mount the potentiometer.
5. I then made two parameter changes to allow for the use of the remote forward/stop/reverse switch and the remote potentiometer.
That's it...pretty simple and straight forward to get everything working with the VFD!
I did make some optional parameter changes from top and bottom frequency and also for acceleration and deceleration which took all of two minutes to accomplish, but that was an optional step.
In short, the VFD solution is actually much more simple than I thought it would be. I think the whole setup cost me less than $250 so it is probably the cheapest solution as well.