# Tread mill motor on lathe



## Barnbikes (Apr 24, 2015)

I have a WW2 era craftsman metal lathe that I want to power with a DC tread mill motor. I have a 1.5hp tread mill motor and the original control panel but an lost on how to control the motor other then say bring up 1 mph and see what speed it will turn.

Is there a web page or a past discussion that would walk me through the mounting and controlling part.

Thanks,
Jon


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## velocette (Apr 25, 2015)

Hi 
Be aware that a treadmill motor will spin at  up to around five thousand RPM compared to a four pole single phase motor At 1425 RPM on 50 cycles per second.
You need to calculate the the motor and the driven pulley sizes to get the same spindle speeds on the lathe

Loads of info on various model craftsman lathes @

http://www.lathes.co.uk/craftsman/index.html

Get to work with your favourite search engine on the web there is loads of info available out there.

Eric


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## Tin Falcon (Apr 25, 2015)

for 15 usd you can buy a lazer tach .

I would advise caution. if it is an old 109 the original motor was probably 1/4 hp. and the spindles are fairly  small so combine a motor  that puts out 6x the original power and thin spindle take a large cut and you may have a disaster on your hands. 
tin


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## DICKEYBIRD (Apr 25, 2015)

I like the KBIC-120 speed controls for treadmill motors.  $20 to $50 used on the bay.  I've bought 5 or 6 of them (used) through the years and they've all worked perfectly.  They're tough, adaptable to many motor sizes & easily adjustable to do what you want.  A 5k pot gives you almost infinite speed control & you can turn it down to half or even quarter speed if full chat is too fast or powerful and it'll run fine for hours if needed.  You can do pulley reduction as well.

Here's a link to the .pdf manual.  Have a quick read:
http://www.kbelectronics.com/manuals/kbic_manual.pdf


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## velocette (Apr 25, 2015)

Hi Jon
 AS pointed out the motor is overpowered for the size of the lathe. 
This can be overcome by the setting on the CL - Current Limit Pot on the control board to lower the stall Amperage and limit the power output. 
REM RTFMF Read The F Manual First All the info to setup correctly is in there. 
Will help your understanding of an AC to DC speed controller An you MAY be able to transfer some of the info to the original tread mill controller.
In any doubt about the setting and working with mains powered equipment seek help-assistance from some one with experience and knowledge of these controls 
Be SAFE 

Eric


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## DJP (Apr 26, 2015)

I'm not sure about an old Craftsman lathe but my 1940s Southbend with flat belt drive has a built in safety feature. The belt hops off the pulley under severe load.

Still I would look for a smaller motor as my old lathe works best at low rpm and with light cuts. I prefer simple AC motors for these applications as my experience with a mini mill DC motor and controller is that there are too many places for it to fail. 

Simple is good and they had it right in 1940s.


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