The windings will be on the inside of the laminated stator, which is probably pressed into the outer casing. So long as you stay away from where the wires go from the junction box to the end of the stator you should be fine.

I actually had to weld up a crack in the casing of the feed motor of my lathe. The cast iron casing had been split when the end bells were pressed into it.

Jon

Far safer to weld onto the bracket rather than motor case. If you must.

I'm no fan of welding in that sort of situation as it makes life harder if you have to change things. My late mate Andy the Randy reached for the welding gear first on pretty much any job 'cos it was quicker than making bolt on brackets like wot I did. I still say he spent more time cutting off, griding and re-welding than I did drilling and bending.

I'd just make a bracket to share the motor mounting holes.

However if you plan to use the VFD controls on the box rather than make up a remote button pendant putting it on the motor will be way too far back for easy driving.

Given the low motor power the VFD box will be compact so it could easily be mounted on the left side of the machine in front of the rotary switch so the speed display and buttons face you.

I was impressed by a picture of one mounted that way with a lever to operate the rotary switch alongside. Presumably the maker had arranged bearings behind the VFD to capy the lever witha fork, slot or similar to operate the switch. Red ball on the end of the lever so as to be obvious whethre switch was on or off. Presumably ball forward was on, ball up or down off.

Never really cared for the standard switch on the side location as it's slow tor each in an emergency if you don't fit an additional stop button.

Clive

I like that solution much better than welding. Looks good and solid and can be adjsuted or changed if need be.