rod-mill project - "mains" electric motor advice

Hello again everyone

Rod-mill project - now thinking of the mechanical drive arrangement
and details.

I've updated the project webpage and you can jump straight to "Drive
for rod mill - April 2025"

http://weldsmith.co.uk/greet/rodmill/250318_rodmill.html

Has sketches and calculations.

I estimate that a 1/2HP motor would have the ability to run this mill.

Electric induction motors - as "our" electric supply is at 50Hz, the
common motor rotation speeds are 1500RPM and 3000RPM.
Just commenting so if you are in a 60Hz region the numbers are
recognisable.

The mill turns at about 60RPM

(/ 1500 60e0) ;; 25.0

So that would be 25:1 from a 4-pole motor.

If using flat-belts (or any other belt drive) that needs 2
countershafts, for a 3-stage speed reduction?

Snr. Villavicencio in what I take to be South America takes that as
being the case

YouTube:
"Molino californiano o de pisones"
Edgar Villavicencio

The applicable likeness is
* the petrol motor has about the same revs as an electric motor
* these California stamps run at about the same revs as the rod-mill

If Snr. Villavicencio knows no better economical way to achieve the
drive with speed-reduction, there is unlikely to be one(?).

(Digression, but explaining my respect:
I was amazed to see pictures of the fatigue-testing machine at a
university in Columbia used for some good research - they had made it
themselves and it was "jaw-droppingly" remarkably elegant and vastly
simpler, being mechanical, than the electronically-controlled
servo-hydraulic machines we use here in "the West" - it was also much
more efficient, using a motor about what you'd find in a
washing-machine where we'd have a 10's-of-kW 3-phase motor running the
hydraulic pump.  I got in-touch by email with the Professor there in
Columbia, who was very forthcoming and good to message with)

Right, this is where you (plural) have all the pragmatic experience
and I have just about none...

What is the best solution to buy?

Get a 1ph-to-3ph power-electronic drive which costs but then be able
to use second-hand 3-phase motors?  Getting variable-frequency and
speed-control within a useful 10's of percent range that way?

Going single-phase,
thinking that one motor should be able to serve various projects...

4-pole single-phase motor?

If 2-pole 3000RPM motor were cheaper, maybe can get one with eg. a
10:1 gearbox giving 300RPM output giving maybe only a single-stage
speed reduction with flat-belts for quite a range of projects?

I am not overly hopeful of coming-by single-phase motors
second-hand...

Advice on brands and sources of motors - what is best value-for-money
if price alone is not what dictates that?

Category of motor?
There are various "capacitor-start" / "capacitor-run" specs.

What size of motor, given 1/2HP looks like about the minimum for this
particular project but not necessarily future projects?

This is very wide-open as a question, for sure...

I think of mounting the motor on a plate of some simple rectangular
dimension, which can be moved between projects and bolted into place.
Being free to drill new holes in the plate for unique features to that
project.

Thanks in advance,
Rich S