I finally finished the lathe conversion. It ended up being a lot more work than I expected as I ran into problems in pretty much every area.

The lathe is a 1995 era Jet 9x20 lathe. It originally had an incredibly heavy 3/4 HP single phase motor.

• The motor was not a drop in replacement. I had to move the motor mount over about 3/4". I had to chop off a chunk from the quick change gearbox mounting plate because the motor hit it. I also had to buy a new longer belt. Phew. In this case a Frame 56 motor was NOT a drop in replacement for the motor that it came with.

Why did I decide that putting a new motor on my lathe was a good idea?

I already have many projects in process; things like figuring out why I can no longer use the heat pump register in my bedroom; landscaping the backyard and getting a tree removed; walking 50 minutes a day. But after I finished the little motor project, I was frustrated at how many times I had to switch belts.

My fried Josh managed to find himself owning two lathes. After helping him resolve that problem I found myself an owner of a Jet 9x20 lathe. Not having used a lathe in about 10 years I decided to start by working on a skills building project. 

After some looking around, I found the EZ Build Engine plans from the folks over at Home Model Engine Machinist board. They basically build a small compressed air engine. Building mine was quite a saga. I managed to get some whiplash with kept me out of the shop for several months. After 4 months of very short increments of work I had a functioning engine and mostly better neck.