When it’s all done, I want it to look like a factory quality job and not just something that got hacked into the lathe. I decided to forgo the pulley stack that sits on the motor and drive from the jackshaft. I actually bought two of these thinking I might also hook one up on my drill press or other machine. I have a 40’s model A Southbend lathe and attempting to install a treadmill (TM) motor on it as I have seen done. The jackshaft gives it a 2:1 ratio to help that out. I cut the female end off of a spare computer power cord I had, ran it into the bottom of the controller box, tied a knot in the cord for strain relief (would hate to pull the terminals lose and have live AC current bouncing around inside that case! if your talking metal lathe, ive seen a lot of old lathes retrofitted with variable speed motors from treadmills, but to make one from scratch?? Reading over the various potential modifications, I decided the DC motor needed to come fairly early in the process for several reasons. It fit very nicely on the motor controller. What this does is makes the full range of the panel speed dial available and usable. In case I ever need to put the AC Motor back, here are the connections…. Icon Nordictrack proform Treadmill Motor G-175310 N1CPM-089T. Okay, who has been running my lathe backwards! I have a lathe that I would like to replace the motor of with a treadmill motor. Is 1/2hp a good size for a wide 9? Being able to change speed at the twist of the dial is a dream come true. Would the controller's specs of 20-220V and (probably) 5KW at 130V be good enough if someone had, say, a 3hp 130V dc motor? This is a pretty cheap mod when you buy the parts from surplus or eBay. Let’s review the internal connections on the DC-2. This drive consists of two split pulleys. I was able correct this issue by machining a pulley groove in the actual motor shaft itself allowing the motor to run faster at slow lathe spindle speeds. This was a straightforward task involving some aluminum stock, my horizontal bandsaw, my drill press, and trips to the hardware store to purchase appropriately sized nuts, bolts, and washers. Re: Lathe Treadmill Motor Conversion 01-03-2017, 01:36 AM The Walker Turner is at least as good as the Rockwell-Beaver, but yes price is quite high, the banjo is showing in the picture, it is laying upside down on the front edge of the stand. Fabricate a mounting bracket to attach the motor to the lathe. If possible, I think I will eventually fabricate a bracket to mount the controller facing backwards behind the motor, potentially upside down (the cable exits are on the bottom of the box!). I didn’t even bother searching for “treadmill motor”, although a lot of machine tool enthusiasts have used that kind of motor. The pulley moves by a lever that meshes with a threaded rod attached to one side of the shaft pulley. Hopefully good for at least another 2 years of operation, this time under CNC power. Note: Some controls have a fancy electronically braked version of this. $80.00. I don't know what kind of electrical specs I could add that aren't in the Amazon link to the part. I purchased a Motor speed controller to change the voltage to make the motor run faster and slower as necessary. I know little to nothing about such things (my Dad was a electrician, go figure) Would this motor have enough guts to spin a lathe, and would it be worth tying to find a … For my controller, there are all kinds of warning that you need to stop the motor before reversing. Treadmills use DC motors which are easier to speed control than AC motors and used treadmills can be had relatively cheap. As a temporary measure, I machined these pieces using just a set of washers and an ordinary shaft collar to hold the timing pulley in place: Temporary rig to machine the pulley spacers with. The motor, via a pulley, turns the spindle and the spindle will have a log or a blank on it up to a size of say 10" diameter and maybe 20" long. The easiest way to do this is to relocate the controls from the motor controller box to a newly fabricated panel that will fit in the stock location. Treadmill motors operate on DC voltage, so I was going to need to convert the 120 volts of AC from the wall outlet to DC. You will see that I had to purchase several little bits and bobs to make this work, but all told it was still far cheaper than buying a new motor. RE electrical specs: What I had in mind was a simple explanation of the relationships between the controller, rectifier and motor specs. Note: Be sure to read the update below on how I remade the motor mounts so they were stronger and easier to install and uninstall. At this stage its really easy to test the motor, and I must say I was very gratified when it fired up. (I googled it.) I had some 1/4″ thick aluminum plate together with some 3/16″ that I used to fabricate a motor brack. I was working on turning an Oak bowl when the motor shorted out. It’s fair to say the latter is closer to industry practice. This is a permanent magnet continuous duty motor. This way I can use the lathe to machine the pulley to fit the motor. $15.65 shipping. I have a Harbor Freight 12 X 36 Wood Lathe. Eventually, the vibration started to get worse and worse until the lathe was unusable. Instead of trying to find or modify a pulley to go on the shaft of the lathe, I decided to keep the Reeves Drive pulley on the lathe headstock shaft. I too, like woodturner70, have a treadmill DC motor that I would like to use as the drive for a potters wheel. My 1958 Craftsman lathe came with a 1/3 HP AC motor and changing speeds meant stopping and switching the belt to another pulley. Figure your, Planning the Lathe Modification and Understanding the DC Motor Controller, I will likely be locating the controller unobtrusively behind the lathe where it is out of sight and out of mind. I grounded to the case for safety and attached the other two conductors to the L1/L2 terminals of the black terminal block. You can see what it looks like down below. I really think getting fine rpm control at the twist of a know will make it easier to get the most out of my Asian lathe. We’ll have to look at clearances, but if I had to, I would sacrifice the jog function. I will do this before installing the motor on the lathe and bench run to be sure the motor and controller work correctly. 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'S Gym 480 treadmill DRO, I decided the DC treadmill drive 2.65HP... Accelerated to top speed and then slow way down to get worse and worse the... Is out of mind diameter of the black terminal block HP treadmill motor such rocking is likely how original!