I have recently converted to a 3 phase motor with a VFD. I have noticed several photos of other shoptasks where the motor pully drives the spindle pulley directly. Just looking for advice on belt lenght a pulleys to make the conversion. I am using mach 3 and a new campbell controller to run the VFD.
Anybody got pictures of how to perform conversion?

Ray

I have some photos of my VFD conversion here: www.the-alchemist.com (http://www.the-alchemist.com) Just get some wrenches and start ripping everything out. You will only need to keep the threading gears.

I'd go with Fenner link belts, that way you don't need to size the belt exactly. The main consideration is aligning belt line of the spindle pulleys to whatever you decide to put on the motor.

DO NOT order the Browning step pulleys from MSC. I got two of them and they are total trash. The bore is about .125 off center on both. I'm waiting on some e-bay pulley right now. I'll let you know how they work.

Initially I planned to drive the mill with a 6" pulley and the lathe with a 5". My motor is 1725 rpm, so I expected to see about 2500 rpm on the mill and 1500 on the lathe. My new ebay pulleys are an inch smaller. So, I should get about 2000 rpm on the mill and about 1200 on the lathe. Not sure if this will work out or not. I thought I'd need more low speed than high speed in practice...especially on the lathe. I don't really ever turn anything too fast because chips and oil start flying too far. I regularly used 1800 rpm on the mill when it had the old motors, so we'll see if I miss the extra 500.

http://www.the-alchemist.com/Images/Shoptask/VFD/cabinet_before.jpg[br]
http://www.the-alchemist.com/Images/Shoptask/VFD/VFD_working.jpg

Thanks so much!!!!!
This is exactly what I've been looking for.
Just wanted all the extra noise removed and a smooth spindle.
I have my wrenchs in hand, and will start looking for the belt you mentioned.
The pictures speak a thousand words....

Thanks again
Ray