"Nick" wrote in
:

As a matter of interest. The grinder nameplate says 'split phase
motor'. What does this mean? I know UK and US electrickery is vastly
different but I've never seen this before.

A split-phase motor is a single phase motor with a starting
winding. Almost invariably they also have a starting capacitor,
and are usually called capacitor start motors.

There are split-phase motors without starting caps, but they
don't have very good starting torque, so you usually only
see them in low power applications.

John