Tread Mill Motor for Lathe?

Vega got a whole bunch of 1 horsepower (actual) treadmill motors and controllers and offered them for $58 as I recall. I had to replace the controller, but I have used the motor for about 2 years. They go down to basically 0 rpm, unlike the frequency drive AC models. Vector AC drives do go down to about zero speed, but cost a fortune. I love the motor. I would never go back to single speed. I set it up with a forward/neutral/reverse switch and a potentiometer for adjusting speed, both in a box that has magnets on the back and can mount on anything metal. I also have three pulley positions.

Derek

Yes, just don't believe the "horsepower" rating (ie, a "2 hp" treadmill motor appears to be about a "1HP" equivalent in real horsepower, IME)

looking at a lot of turners at our local club;-)

Many turners would be better off gett> Sometime ago, there was a thread about using variable speed tread mill

That reminds me of a band saw I have, a Sears with a tilting head. Actually an OK saw for the money but it's advertising claimed the motor "develops" 1 1/2 HP and it's on the saw in such a way as to make you think that's what the motor is. But it really only has a 5/8 HP motor.

Ah, but properly done you don't need the motor for either if you are going to try to do both.

Brian

I collected some info about using one a few years ago and put a web page together:

It works great for a minilathe. Speed rang is not an issuse, you can go from 0 to basically too fast. And it seems to have enough grunt provided that you use proper technique.

Don't try the email address on that page. I lost a bunch of info when moving jobs and put my rmwt.org site back with stuff that is at least

3 year old. So pretty much everything there is out of date and I haven't had the time to put things back together.

bruno.

Thanks, thanks to all.

Walt Conner