Can you run a wood OR metal lathe off of solar power??

Question

I will be building a bowl lathe before long and I'm interested in running it off of solar power, has anybody attempted this yet? If so what were the drawbacks / advantages of this technique, hopefully it will help with my decison.

thanks,

Answer 1

The main issue is the amount of energy needed to turn the lathe (or run any other tool or appliance).

Would you only be using it while the sun is shining, driving it from a turbine via a belt, or do you want to store the power generated by the solar panels and run it using an electric motor?

Work out the cost of the solar panels required to produce sufficient power, plus batteries and/or inverter needed depending on the voltage of an electric motor powerful enough to turn the lathe.

Compare it to the cost of other sources of energy such as mains power (if available) or a small combustion engine driving it directly using a belt or running a generator.

Obviously the whole exercise is related to your objectives (i.e. why you want to or need to do this) and sorry I don't have a direct answer for you as I haven't tried it!

Answer 2

you need a

230V/1Ph/50Hz 1HP (0.75 kW)Motor

Capacitor start induction motor ( single phase) to run a lathe. I hope to produce this much power you need  very big solor cells to generate that power