Not familiar with the 10" Watkins. If you can change to a single phase
motor without much hassle, that would be the way to go. If the motor is
a specialty motor, built to fit the machine, it doesn't cost much to
wire in an old three phase motor to use as an idler. You can spend a
little more for caps to equalize the phases and a start circuit. Some
folks use a lawn mower type rope start. Gets the job done. Costs
almost nothing.

bob g.
p.s. I've done this stuff a little so I'm not just repeating something
I've been told, read somewhere. I've started a three phase idler by
standing on the idler motor and spinning a pulley on its shaft with a
rubber soled shoe.

oddjobboy wrote:

Anyone had any experience of dropping a new single phase motor into
something like the old 10" Wadkin I've been offered for notalot?
It seems like too good an offer to pass up, but I'm concerned that
there'll be more to the three-phase to single phase conversion than
simply exchanging the motor. I guess there's all the switches etc to
consider as well.

I've done a little research on the Net into phase converters but it
seems a bit like overkill buying an inverter for just the one piece of
kit. And they're not cheap either...