Variable Speed Tread Mill D.C. Motor Conversion Shop Fox Drill Press.

[Captainleeward]

Variable Speed Tread Mill D.C. Motor Conversion,with DC power supply for Shop Fox Drill Press.

[obt@charter.net]

The magic is in the third picture. I'd use these if I could get a "Tread Mill Controller for Dummies" instructable that I could just "do" without having to understand anything electrical. Have a couple of motors and want to do a 2 x 72 sander.....

[Al8236]

The magic is in the third picture. I'd use these if I could get a "Tread Mill Controller for Dummies" instructable that I could just "do" without having to understand anything electrical. Have a couple of motors and want to do a 2 x 72 sander.....

Try this video it's as simple as I have seen I'm about the same when it comes to electrical and this worked for me!

[Captainleeward]

I removed the fly wheel just to be on the safe side and the motor works fine I have these motor and controllers on my lathe, mill and my drill press.
You can buy these components on ebay for cheep 50 for the motor and 50 for the controller. my controller does not have that large transformer on it.

Thanks to AL8236 for a great video...:O)

[tonyfoale]

..... my controller does not have that large transformer on it.

I think that you will find that the "transformer" is a just a choke (inductance) which is used to filter or smooth the current through the motor. The speed control system works by chopping part of the AC cycle which at lower speeds and when rectified results in a series of narrowed pulses rather than the wider ones from a rectified full sine wave. Neither are smooth DC.
These are DC brush commutated motors which prefer feeding on smooth DC rather than out of phase rectified and chopped AC. At any given speed the commutator segments pass under a brush at a certain frequency which mostly will be out of phase with the supply frequency. The choke helps by evening out the current pulses. These motors run much smoother and quieter with the choke in series.
The above applies to TRIAC controllers which are the only type that I have seen in treadmills, but if some controllers are based on a PWM system then there would be less need for a large choke due to the much higher frequency of the pulses. 1000s of times higher.

[bigtrev8xl]

Low Cost DC Motor Controller For Treadmill....
I've just ordered the parts off ebay, there's lots of similar videos on youtube

[Captainleeward]

Hi Tony Foale, WOW Thanks for clearing that up for me I was wondering what that transformer was doing there. you can be friends with me if you wish.

[tonyfoale]

Hi Tony Foale, WOW Thanks for clearing that up for me I was wondering what that transformer was doing there. you can be friends with me if you wish.

ha, ha. I accept, can't have too many friends. On another thread I promised that I would make a post describing several methods of controlling motor speed but I have not made the time for it yet.
For my first use of the treadmill motors I used the treadmill controller but they have delays and other safety features built-in which make those controllers less suitable for controlling machine tools so I make my own. Maybe this weekend I'll try and finish that post describing motor control.

[DIYer]

Thanks Captainleeward! We've added your Drill Press DC Motor Conversion to our Drilling and Drill Presses category,
as well as to your builder page: Captainleeward's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Drill Press DC Motor Conversion by Captainleeward

tags: drill press, motor

[Nick79]

Thank you, very helpful. What model/brand treadmill was used and what is the model of the speed controller. Looks like it might be a MC 60

Thanks again - Nick