# What would you rather have...



## The_Apprentice (Feb 6, 2018)

So you have a choice for your Mill or Lathe:

350W Brush Motor
250W Bushless Motor

You prefer the extra torque over HP or not?


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## RJSakowski (Feb 6, 2018)

HP and torque are not equivalent.  HP = torque x rpm/5252.  You can get required torque by appropriate gearing from any given HP but you cannot generally increase HP.  Torque is what overcomes the resistance to rotation by the cutting action.  
Different motors have different torque curves.  If you are looking for low rpm use without gearing as with a VFD, you would be concerned with the motor's low rpm torque characteristics.  
If you are using a constant rpm motor with gears or pulleys to reduce or increase rpm and increase or reduce torque, you would go with the higher HP and set your gear/pulley multiplication to get the desired torque and rpm.


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## The_Apprentice (Feb 6, 2018)

The reason I ask, is when looking for rough pricing info on mini-mills, the former 1/2 hp is significantly cheaper than the 1/3 hp brushless variant.

The main difference being torque.

When looking at the capacity stats, the 1/2 hp variant naturally have better listed stats.


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## chips&more (Feb 6, 2018)

And to add insult to injury. Manufacture specs can be misleading and or lost in the translation. If you know what I mean.


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## magicniner (Feb 6, 2018)

I don't do fractional horsepower ;-)


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