The Home Machinist!

FLSTEAM,

Treadmill motors are rated different than standard motors. It's more like a 1 or 1.5hp motor or less in reality. I got the 15 ampere resistor kit as an option and the heat sink option.

The controller is good for 2hp max. Thats if you hook it up to 230 vac. If I hook it up to 230 vac, I will have 0 to 180 vdc output. I will find the spot where the 100 volt thresh hold is and make sure I don't exceed that mark. If I go over a little it won't hurt anything. My projects don't require alot of hogging on the mill so, I think I'm safe.

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Bill

I will be looking for follow-up on this one, should be very educational.

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A guy never has to come down out of the clouds if he keeps filling the valleys with peaks. S.Stube

Steve_in_Mich,

I got the new controller Friday, just in time to play out in the shop Saturday.

I hooked up the controller to 230vac. It ran the motor quite nicely. I never went over the 100vdc output. At about level 6 out of 10 it read 100vdc.

I grabbed the flywheel to imitate a load and it performed okay. It did a little more grumbling than I wanted but still pretty good.

Wont really be able to tell how well it does until it cuts metal. The shaft rpm is insanely fast comared to the one on my mill.
I will have to do more testing befor I commit to replacing the existing motor on the mill with this one. Even though the one on my mill is only rated for 2hp it seems to be more powerful than the 3hp treadmill motor. I know it weighs about twice as much as the treadmill motor.
I had two reasons I wanted to change the motor. 1st reason, obviously, speed control. 2nd reason, the mill motors centrifugal switch would not cut out. I was having to touch the cap with the winding lead at start up every time then release. That was getting old. But I didnt have the confidence to disassemble the motor to find the problem.

once I got the treadmill motor I told myself if I cant fix the mill motor I have a replacement. That gave me the nudge to go ahead and try and fix it.

Once I tore it apart I could see that one of the leads coming off the centrifugal was being pressure shorted to the frame of the motor. Whomever assembled the motor was not very careful.
So I cut the two leads and used but splices and heat shrink tubing and put it back together.

Another problem I had was the pulleys on the motor did not line up with the pulleys on the spindle. So, I had been using some scrap aluminum plates to raise up the motor so it would line up with the spindle pulleys. I could never get the pulley to come off the motor. After fixing the short I decided to pull off the pulley on the shaft of the motor. It finally came free. So, I used the bandsaw and cut the part that you insert the shaft into. Took about 1/2'' off. Installed it back on the motor shaft. Put everything back together.

Everything worked like a charm. Best day Iv'e had in the shop in a while.

Sorry so winded.

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Bill

always nice to hear a happy ending and you learned something too.

hello gentlemen..forgive me if i am resurrecting a dead thread but i am doing something similar and very much need help

im wanting to build a simple lathe from a 2.8 horspower 110vdc to-130vdc treadmill motor,but having a touch time finding a variable speed control for such motor.

i wanted to ask the gentlemen that posted the KB controller how well it works?...cause i recently found it for 118 bucks and wanted a opinion on the control.

any and all information is greatly appreciated

thanks

keith.