Another Tread mill motor guy?
Having done the DC route, was it worth the trouble of fabrication for DC power? / Or does the VFD rule because they have become so efficient and easy to install??
Don
I'm a hobby - woodworker, machinist, electrician, and more... so fabricating the DC replacement to my lathe was a fun project for me. I replaced the asian 3/4hp AC motor with a made in the US Leeson 3/4 DC motor. the housing was NOT the same, and I literally had to incorporate machining, woodworking, and electicity work into making it work (it's blogged in on my personal blog linked in my signature line below). BUT it was quite a project and involved quite a bit of work to make it all work, including generating all the proper circuit connections on the KB controller to be able to break, reverse, and protect the DC motor and controller itself properly. all in all, it came out great, but It did not perform as well at low RPMs as I would have liked it to - but it did work well enough for what I needed it to do.
The VFD was just a joy, and a no brainer. there are preset connections for everything (input, output, fwd/rev/pot) and everything is programmable, so no need to physically play around with cables and switches. connect wires, and turn it on (some minor settings to enable remote fwd/off/rev switch to use the factory lathe rocker switch but that was it).
If I had to do this again, I'd go for VFD as opposed to replacement Motor + controller. it ends up being same cost, but just a much easier process to setup and less to monkey around with.
but that's just me.