What size breaker for possible future lathe?

[OneWithWood]

I am wiring my new shop addition.  I want to incorporate an outlet for a lathe I hope to own in the near future.  Problem is I don't know which lathe it might be.  If I put in a 240v-20a breaker will I have it covered?

[Corley5]

Be sure the wire to the plug is heavy enough and you can size the breaker later 

[warren46]

Since this is woodworking forum it is safe to believe that this will be a lathe for wood.  It is very unlikely that you will need more than 20 amp at 220 V to run such a lathe.

Warren

[Ianab]

Yeah, 2hp is a BIG wood lathe & 240 @ 20a would easily cover that. That circuit would supply almost 5,000w. Plenty of power for any small ww machine.

[SPIKER]

One possibility is to wire a 50amp outlet and put in plug so you can plug in welder etc, on the machine you plug into it can have it's own fuse then.   Basically a universal plug and on each machine you add to the shop the units are wired for self contained fuses..

Mark

[scsmith42]

A 20A 240VAC breaker on 12/2 with ground wire will be sufficient for up to a 3 hp lathe.

A 5 HP lathe will require a 30A 240VAC breaker on a 10/2 with ground (or 10/3 with ground) wire.

[OneWithWood]

My initial thought was to wire it with 10/3 with ground and a 240v 20a breaker thinking I could always swap out the breaker and plug if I needed more.

I already have a 50a circuit wired with 6/3 with ground (if I remember correctly - I do remember it is very heavy and was very expensive) so I won't need to replicate that.

Thanks for all your input.  I knew I would get good advice quickly here. 

[Burlkraft]

My OneWay is 3hp. and I have a 240  20a breaker in there.

I've never kicked it as the lathe has an overload protection breaker too.