Thanks folks, a few pionts I failed to mention above, I plan to keep the belt system and vary RPMs within the range of the selected speed, for example, facing a piece of 4" round, I'd set the belts for a 1,000RPM then dial the machine down to say, 600 RPM and as the cutter moves toward the center I can turn up the RPMs accordingly (I think

).
The 'dead' motor ran at 1720RPM and the replacement motor is 1800RPM, although the replaced spindle bearings are rated at 8,000+ RPMs, I'd NEVER try to spin 'er up that much, I'll stick to the stock 2,000RPM thank you very much.

I am now thinking I'll pay the extra $45.00 and upgrade to the 2HP.
@Pete et al, as to mounting the motor, the larger dementions prohibit direct mounting, which is fine. Between the chip tray and the pedistal I have a 17" deep x 32" wide x 3/8" thick piece of steel plate and if my meausrements are close, I'll just need to get an ~ 2" longer timing belt.
I'm still a bit confused about speed reduction and torq loss, this is my (limited) understanding. If you use a potentiometer (light dimmer) to control RPM then for every increase in resistance (bleed-off of power) you get both a reduction in RPM and available torq. In a Vector duty motor coupled with a VFD, I have 220v single phase in and like a really, really good Vegas card dealer, (at 100% power) deals 20,000 pulses of 220v to each leg in the 3 phasse motor for a total of 60,000 pulses or Hz.
Now let's say I want to go 20% slower than 1,000RPM, so, 800RPM, by turning the RPMs down on the VFD, what I'm actually doing is now sending 16,000 pulses\sec\leg @ 220v, thus a reduction in speed and although there will\may be torq loss, it should be very little compared to any resistive approach.
If any of our electrical types care to correct\expand, we're all here to learn and thank you.
Chazz