FlyWheel on Lathe Motor or Not?

[GBCues]

Since there seem to be an increasing number of questions from budding cue repair guys/cue builders, I thought it might be OK to toss this one out.

I'm cobbling together a lathe for repair and basic construction. The motor I'm wanting to use is a 2.5 HP DC motor from a treadmill. It has a LARGE flywheel on it. Obviously the motor is strong enough to turn the flywheel and run a treadmill, the load from cue turning shouldn't be any greater.

Is there any advantage to leaving the flywheel on the motor? It should help steady out the rpm's at any given speed, but I can't think of any other advantage.

As always, thanks in advance for any advice.

Gary

 

[rhncue]

Since there seem to be an increasing number of questions from budding cue repair guys/cue builders, I thought it might be OK to toss this one out.

I'm cobbling together a lathe for repair and basic construction. The motor I'm wanting to use is a 2.5 HP DC motor from a treadmill. It has a LARGE flywheel on it. Obviously the motor is strong enough to turn the flywheel and run a treadmill, the load from cue turning shouldn't be any greater.

Is there any advantage to leaving the flywheel on the motor? It should help steady out the rpm's at any given speed, but I can't think of any other advantage.

As always, thanks in advance for any advice.

Gary

Those motors are fairly large but aren't real powerful, (actually around a 1/2 HP) although they say 2 or 2.5. I bought two of them 3 or 4 years ago with the variable speed transducer or whatever it's called. The fly wheel is certainly not needed for what you anticipate using it for. The fly wheel is needed to smooth the flow as each foot hits the belt. I bought these surplus to make up something as you are talking about but I changed my mind as they are very slow coming up to speed, (about 2 seconds before the motor even starts to move) and must come to a complete stop and about another 2 seconds before changing direction. The reason that they are powerful enough for a tread mill is that the speed of the motor is geared down substantially where as with the lathe you need the rpms. Just my two cents worth. Good luck.

Dick

 

[KJ Cues]

I agree, there is no advantage to a flywheel in this application.
It can actually have serious drawbacks.
For example, when you are tapping a hole under power and reach depth, you cut power yet the chuck keeps rolling because of the inertia of the flywheel.
Not a good scenario.
I prefer full-size 3ph machine tools, particularly for this task. 3ph will give you instant reverse. Tap to your predetermined depth, hit reverse and watch the tap back itself out of the hole.

I'm currently using a DC motor of the type you're speaking of on my spray-booth lathe. IMO, that's a suitable application. Very efficient with the benefit of variable speed. I'd love to be able to have it reverse so I could have the motor assist in the removing of the shaft from the drive-pin when I'm done shooting finish but unfortunately, these tread-mill motors are designed to run in only one direction. No one walks backwards on a tread-mill.

 

[rhncue]

I agree, there is no advantage to a flywheel in this application.
It can actually have serious drawbacks.
For example, when you are tapping a hole under power and reach depth, you cut power yet the chuck keeps rolling because of the inertia of the flywheel.
Not a good scenario.
I prefer full-size 3ph machine tools, particularly for this task. 3ph will give you instant reverse. Tap to your predetermined depth, hit reverse and watch the tap back itself out of the hole.

I'm currently using a DC motor of the type you're speaking of on my spray-booth lathe. IMO, that's a suitable application. Very efficient with the benefit of variable speed. I'd love to be able to have it reverse so I could have the motor assist in the removing of the shaft from the drive-pin when I'm done shooting finish but unfortunately, these tread-mill motors are designed to run in only one direction. No one walks backwards on a tread-mill.

These two motors that I have, although not designed for reversing, could be wired to reverse. I don't remember how, now though. when I bought them they were surplus tread mill motors that a wood lathe manufacturer was using on their wood lathes and sold a bunch of the motors when they changed design or something. I read about them on rec.sport machining news group but I can no longer receive news groups with my carrier. Some one on the news group put up a schematic showing how to wire for a forward/reverse switch but I don't have the information now. The motors came with a chip board and rheostat for variable speed for 50.00 each. I bought 2 but never ever used them.

Dick

 

[tsp&b]

Reversable... Yes

I agree, there is no advantage to a flywheel in this application.
It can actually have serious drawbacks.
For example, when you are tapping a hole under power and reach depth, you cut power yet the chuck keeps rolling because of the inertia of the flywheel.
Not a good scenario.
I prefer full-size 3ph machine tools, particularly for this task. 3ph will give you instant reverse. Tap to your predetermined depth, hit reverse and watch the tap back itself out of the hole.

I'm currently using a DC motor of the type you're speaking of on my spray-booth lathe. IMO, that's a suitable application. Very efficient with the benefit of variable speed. I'd love to be able to have it reverse so I could have the motor assist in the removing of the shaft from the drive-pin when I'm done shooting finish but unfortunately, these tread-mill motors are designed to run in only one direction. No one walks backwards on a tread-mill.

Pretty much any PM DC brush type motor (which is what we are talking about) is reversable. All you have to do is reverse the + & - lead wires.

 

[GBCues]

Pretty much any PM DC brush type motor (which is what we are talking about) is reversable. All you have to do is reverse the + & - lead wires.

Yep, that's generally the case. But sometimes, the commutator may be so far advanced for one direction (to increase speed) that it will run much slower in the opposite direction - or maybe it's to increase torque, I forget (been a while since my battlebots days)

If that's the case, though, the motor will not run the same in both directions.

 

[tsp&b]

If these motors are the ones I think they are (from surplus center), from my personal experience, these motors will run fine either direction. BUT, I COULD BE WRONG!! I HAVEN'T SEEN THEM IN PERSON.

 

[rhncue]

If these motors are the ones I think they are (from surplus center), from my personal experience, these motors will run fine either direction. BUT, I COULD BE WRONG!! I HAVEN'T SEEN THEM IN PERSON.

You guys got my nose open so I went back and dug around in my junk room and dug these out. What I have are 2 GE Tread-mill duty, variable speed, reversible DC motors with the controllers. It uses a F/S/R switch and a speed control pot. The set up and testing instructions state that the motor takes 8 to 10 seconds to come up to speed and before the motor will start in either direction it must be at rest and the potentiometer must be at 0. I got these from Vega Lathe co. There are 5 wires coming out of the motors, one of which is a ground and the other 4 are probably for forward and reverse but 2 of them could be for a starter and the other 2 switch for forward/reverse. Not sure since I have never done anything with them. I remember now though that someone on rec.sport metalworking had told of a way of modifying the control board so that they could be brought up to speed quicker.

Dick

 

[tsp&b]

Of the five wires one should be a ground. two are probably power leads (red & Blk?) and then the other two are usually a thermal circuit breaker. (usually both wires are Blue). BUT I COULD BE WRONG!!