Aaron,
At least "wider than your shoulders" by a few inches! The more the better.
I have the 1440GT. I have just finished the VFD conversion, my own solid state electronics design, where all of the electronics including the VFD and the braking resistor are located in the back electronics hole. As with all common conversions, the front panel is modified to provide all features so you do not have to access the rear panel to run the lathe. I am not ready to post my conversion design yet as I have not gotten documentation written and cleaned up yet. I have designed every feature in that I could think of at this point. (I am sure I will come up with some weird additional changes at some point, which require that I get back in there!) However, I am willing to share my design concept if you want it and you can figure out how to communicate without it being a public posting. I will eventually post it later.....
Yes, the stock 1440GT, has all of the electronics electronics in the back panel hole. Of course the simple electronics like control switches, E-stop, etc are outside this area. The electronics hole is self contained and only has small holes, ~1/2-5/8" diameter, to feed the wires in and out. It is basically a steel box that is welded into the back of the stand with an entrance panel. The cavity inside is bigger than the cover plate in both side to side and top to bottom directions, and, for the most part, with wires leaving the box from the upper, back of this box at a height that requires your head to be down low to see them. I commonly find my self laying on the floor reaching up when working on it, but someone younger might do this on their knees. The panel cover is a thin sheet steel plate that bolts on with four 6mm short bolts. Each stand is made from about 4mm thick steel which is formed/bent, not welded, into the rectangular box shape and then has various features/plates welded at the top and bottom to mount the lathe and the feet etc. It is basically at floor level and so difficult to see into unless you are on your knees. So if you are going to spend any time back there you should leave at least enough space between the stand and the nearest wall that is "wider than your shoulders!" But probably more. The rest of your body has to go somewhere so you either get behind the lathe with your whole body or have to work from the end. I am right handed so I usually have my legs toward the tail stock end. You definitely want to do the conversion and run it for a while before you set the lathe, if it is a "permanent placement". The power wires feed through from the end of the lathe/stand and then connect inside the box to screw terminals at the top of the box, near the lathe/stand end. Behind the front control panel is a small cavity where the rear of the current switches reside and the wires are fed out the end of the lathe through a small hole into the change gear area. These then run down behind the gears into the stand into and second stand cavity.
The second stand cavity has an access panel at the end of the lathe/stand. You also have to be able to access it, but not as often. In here are the mechanics for the foot bake and a switch that is tripped by the foot brake and these wires feed up and into the rear electronics box . Also, the wires going to/from the front panel pass from the rear electronics box through this area to feed up to the front control panel.
The room I have my lathe located in is rather small, and in my basement with doors to go through. Hence, before I even started I mounted the lathe on casters which I attached to brackets which attach to the lathe stands. Unlike Steve's description of casters, mine are not directly bolted to the bottom of the stands so do not raise the lathe up but about an inch. These are bolt attached so that they can be removed, but so that I never have to remove them. I do not intend to as I may want to move lathe in and out away from the wall. The leveling feet basically take the lathe off the casters by going down a fraction, ~1/2", of an inch and then the casters are free from the floor. So I have been doing all of my work with the lathe out from the wall by about 3 feet. I simply wheel it up against the wall and level it. If I need to get back into it at a later date, I will be able to do so, but then I suppose will have to re-level it.
By the way, before I started my conversion, I did an electronics and layout drawing and wrote up a functional description of the stock 3ph electronics/relays, transformer, connectors....as I understood them at that time. I basically took all of this, still mounted on its backing plate, out of the lathe and put it in a box never to be used again. I can provide you with this description if you want. It is kind of useful to understand the stock electronics features of the lathe and to have a record of the external wiring that is not replaced in the conversion.
By the way, eventually something will go wrong with the machine and you will have to get into the back. It is just life! Also, VFDs have a finite life time as the manual says the capacitors in them wear out... if nothing else dies first.
Good luck.
Dave
PS. The D1-5 chuck mount is not common if not a bit non-standard. So finding an affordable decent collet chuck is tricky. Fortunately, PM has just started carrying them. I just picked one of the 5C versions up ... before they sell out.
https://www.precisionmatthews.com/p...lathe-accessories/lathe-chucks/collet-chucks/
