Depends on the swing. If it's a 10" or less (5"diameter swing), a half
horse is probably enough. Used to be considered pretty powerful. At 12"
you could easily go a full HP, but 3/4 is certainly adequate. Fourteen is
for sure a horse.

Variable speed is all the rage, but it's far from necessary. Look at your
cone pulleys and order a match from Grainger or such. 1725 RPM motors are
reasonably priced, sometimes free in other people's garages. You can
compute by pulley ratio times motor rated RPM to find out what you've got in
estimated speed.

Your tool presentation is far more important than rotation speed in
determining your results, and any lathe you migrate to will probably have a
motor of its own, so learn to turn on the cheap motor and put your money in
the other, more important, accessories.

"Rich" wrote in message
...
Hi, pardon my ignorance, but I have recently acquired an old Boice-Crane
lathe that doesn't have a motor. Any suggestions for an appropriate
motor?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Rich