treadmill motor

Cue Crazy

Cue Crazy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
A friend of Mine just informed Me last night. He has a treadmill that He acquired from a foreclosure, and It is now stored in his garage which he is working on cleaning out. He asked me If I wanted It. He also gave me the model number, so I looked It up, It appears that It may have this motor In It. http://www.amazon.com/NORDICTRACK-1000-TREADMILL-Drive-Motor/dp/B0012XUGLW

Just curious if anyone has converted one of these, and if It would be worth My while. I assume that the control board is all there. He said the only thing missing was the safety key.

Thanks Greg
 
Just wondering what you mean by "converting one of these".
What's to convert? You mount it and run it.
I guess I'm misunderstanding what you're asking.

Coincidentally, I run a 2-1/2hp treadmill motor on my spray-booth lathe.
HUGE overkill but I got it new with the board & s/h for under $50 from Surplus Center about 10-15 yrs ago.

The motor you show doesn't look like mine so it may function differently.
Mine doesn't have reverse and can't be made to.
It kinda makes sense though, who walks backwards on a treadmill?
I guess if you really wanted to you could just turn around on the machine.
Anyway, my point being that you may or may not have reverse.

Eventually I'm going to swap-out the motor that I have for one that reverses. The rotation of the lathe allows the shaft to screw itself onto the drive-pin but once I've shot the finish I have to manually unscrew the shaft. It makes more sense to me to hit the reversing switch and hold the shaft while it unscrews from the drive-pin.
I guess the older I get, the lazier I get.

Anyway, what do you want to do with this motor?
The appeal for me was the variable speed.
I'd think that you could certainly drive one of the cue-specific lathes with it. They have a wide RPM range and BUCU torque.
Mine will tach-out @ 5 grand but it will never see that in my spray-booth.
 
KJ Cues said:
Just wondering what you mean by "converting one of these".
What's to convert? You mount it and run it.
I guess I'm misunderstanding what you're asking.

Coincidentally, I run a 2-1/2hp treadmill motor on my spray-booth lathe.
HUGE overkill but I got it new with the board & s/h for under $50 from Surplus Center about 10-15 yrs ago.

The motor you show doesn't look like mine so it may function differently.
Mine doesn't have reverse and can't be made to.
It kinda makes sense though, who walks backwards on a treadmill?
I guess if you really wanted to you could just turn around on the machine.
Anyway, my point being that you may or may not have reverse.

Eventually I'm going to swap-out the motor that I have for one that reverses. The rotation of the lathe allows the shaft to screw itself onto the drive-pin but once I've shot the finish I have to manually unscrew the shaft. It makes more sense to me to hit the reversing switch and hold the shaft while it unscrews from the drive-pin.
I guess the older I get, the lazier I get.

Anyway, what do you want to do with this motor?
The appeal for me was the variable speed.
I'd think that you could certainly drive one of the cue-specific lathes with it. They have a wide RPM range and BUCU torque.
Mine will tach-out @ 5 grand but it will never see that in my spray-booth.
Click to expand...



KJ,

Actually that's a good question. I'm not really sure yet, I guess There's no question I should be able to use It somehow, But the first thing I have in mind is as a Lathe motor on My Deluxe, and then I would use the motor that's on there now on a smaller lathe.

I guess I'm looking more for motor specific Info, and if anyone has used the same motor. I've read some general info about converting treadmill motors on various type lathes. Some of them I believe a variable pot can be used on, The can be reversible, etc.

I also read that, some of them will not come to speed without turning the pot back down, although I read something about adding a capacitor to trick the board that there is still voltage or something of that nature that is supposed to help. I have also read about delays in coming up to speed on some. But again Like You mention different setups have different things to consider, so Looking for more specific info on This particular motor, just thought It was worth a shot to see if anyone here has actually used one, and what if any of these concerns that I should be aware of.

I like the Idea of the spray booth motor, I guess that's always a thought I could keep in mind should using It as a lathe motor not be a worth while endeavor.

Thanks Greg
 
Cue Crazy said:
A friend of Mine just informed Me last night. He has a treadmill that He acquired from a foreclosure, and It is now stored in his garage which he is working on cleaning out. He asked me If I wanted It. He also gave me the model number, so I looked It up, It appears that It may have this motor In It. http://www.amazon.com/NORDICTRACK-1000-TREADMILL-Drive-Motor/dp/B0012XUGLW

Just curious if anyone has converted one of these, and if It would be worth My while. I assume that the control board is all there. He said the only thing missing was the safety key.

Thanks Greg
Click to expand...

its free .... take it and run.find a use for it later.

bill
 
I didn't see a whole lot on the specs of the motor. What rpm's? could make a difference on what kind of machine it was on.

John
 
I don't have a Deluxe, but it looks to me like many/most have the motor mounted to the headstock so you can move the headstock - a great feature. Amazon shows that motor at 12 lbs shipping weight, so it weighs 9-10 lbs. I'm not sure I would want that much weight hanging off the back of my headstock.

My 2 cents,

Gary
 
You should be able to make it work fine. Most of the tread mill motors I have had any experience with are 130 VDC (some are 90 VDC) and can be setup to run with reversable rotation. If its free... go for it!!!
 
Thanks Guys, yes agreed at that price It would have been idiotic not to take It, so I did. My friend even delivered It, and put It in the garage for me. It is much heavier and larger then I expected. I've been down with the flu this past week, so I haven't torn It apart yet, but I did plug the treadmill in, and It actually seems to function just fine.

Thanks Again, Greg
 
I retrofit my model-B Porper with a 2.5hp treadmill motor. I run it with a 90vdc controller with variable speed and reverse switch. MUCH stronger than the original motor. The spindle nose has an odd reverse threaded tip so I had to bore out the pulley to sleeve over it & use a set screw to hold it in place on the threaded tip. It was easier than trying to reverse thread the pulley, and there has been no slippage.

The motor I have would mount easily to a deluxe headstock and woudn't weight it down too much. However, I don't move the headstock around so I mounted a DC motor to the lathe base. Everything I have except my jet metal lathe runs on 90vdc with variable speed. EVERYTHING.....even my routers. I have a 90vdc control board set up as an outboard unit with variable speed and overload protection, will run a motor up to 2hp. It has a 115vac receptacle hooked up so I can plug in 3 routers at a time. The dc power is much cleaner & smoother than the ac and that seems to add significant power & speed to the routers. The variable control allows me to fine tune the rpm-bit-vibration ratio so I get minimal vibration. Basically, a router equipped with a 5/8" straight bit will vibrate less than if equipped with a 90degree point cutting bit. Being able to adjust rpm lets me adjust vibration. Works nicely.

A little more than just answering your question. You can get a lot more use out of the controller than the motor, so think about all the brushed motor equipment you have & the controller can operate it. Hope this helps.
 
qbilder said:
. . . . Everything I have except my jet metal lathe runs on 90vdc with variable speed. EVERYTHING.....even my routers. I have a 90vdc control board set up as an outboard unit with variable speed and overload protection, will run a motor up to 2hp. It has a 115vac receptacle hooked up so I can plug in 3 routers at a time. The dc power is much cleaner & smoother than the ac and that seems to add significant power & speed to the routers. The variable control allows me to fine tune the rpm-bit-vibration ratio so I get minimal vibration. Basically, a router equipped with a 5/8" straight bit will vibrate less than if equipped with a 90degree point cutting bit. Being able to adjust rpm lets me adjust vibration. Works nicely.

. . . . .
Click to expand...

Q,

Are you saying that you run your AC routers on DC? Or did you find a source of DC routers?

Gary
 
Yes, AC routers on DC control. So long as the motor has brushes and no capacitor assisted start (like the 2.5hp+), there's no difference between AC & DC. The only difference is in the current flow. With AC, the positive & negative is constantly flip flopping at 60 times per second (60hz). What the controller does is redirects all of the current to one post so instead of the current going from pos/neg-neg/pos-pos/neg/neg/pos-etc., it flows as pos/pos-pos/pos-pos/pos. It only becomes negative as it exits the motor. Actually it runs from negative to positive but that's tomato/tomato. And it's not a true DC current, more of a skipping DC flow, but it's much smoother & more efficient on brush motors than AC current that alternates polarity. In essence, it cleans up the power flow.
 
Q,

Thanks for the quick reply. I learn more good stuff in this forum. One of the surprising aspects of learning cue building and repair for me has been all the supporting technologies that you have to get familiar with in order to reach the end goal. I enjoy these "side trips" as much as the building.

Thanks again.

Gary
 
GEBrown said:
Are you saying that you run your AC routers on DC?
Click to expand...

Many AC powered items contain what is commonly called a "universal motor" that by design can run on AC or DC.

I run my 220V Kress 1050 on a DC Drive that is capable of 180V output. To protect the tool, I set up the drive for 155V max output. The tools that contain universal motors are all rated for a wattage based on alternating current in the form of a sine wave. You must take into account that a square wave at twice the frequency coming from a DC Drive will have a significantly higher average voltage than a sine wave coming from your outlet in the wall. In turn your tools motor will use more power even if it is not rated for it.

This practice will reduce the length of service of your tools if operated at too high of a voltage. 70% is a good rule of thumb.
 
My apologies for the delay in updating fellas, I've been a bit under the weather and layed up with the flu then pneumonia. Just getting back up and stirring around again.

I'm not highly skilled with the workings of speed controllers but here's what I have so far. The treadmill is a Nordictrack exp1000. Turns out there is a problem with the current controls the speed was not working correctly, in fact when I first tried It I only ran it on the slowest speed and did not realize there was a problem. Now It will not work at all, but It does not have a potentiometer. It uses a electronic keypad overlay, and I believe that or the board up top that It plugs into is the only problem.

I ran some tests, first off, I put 18 volts straight to the motor, and got a few MPH worth of speed from It, so after figuring out the motor is good, I researched the controller, It's a MC-60 speed controller. Even though It uses the electronic keypad, It would seem that It is still a PWM controller, uses the same three wires just like one with a manual potentiometer, so I decided to test the controller by jumping the white and red wires on the speed controller board. Motor fires right up, and runs strong, so the good news is It looks like the controller is good. It seemed to want to go up to full power but I just touched the jumpers and did not let It wind up that high. Will test that more when I get a potentiometer to hook up to It.

I still need to work out some details but It should be usable. still need to get a 5k pot as I mentioned, and not yet sure if the motor can be reversed or not.

One other thing I need to work out is that there are actually 2 boards, the MC-60 which runs the motor, and another power board that runs the incline motor, and gets the signal from the digital panel. These boards are wired together so I need to figure out how to rewire in order to eliminate the power board. I found some info that shows running 110v straight into the speed board, so apparently this can be done. There is some kind of inverter or something that I need to wire into the mix. as well as a breaker and switch.

On The motor label is- P.M. D.C., 18.0 amps, 6700rpm, CW rotation, OPEN CONST., 1.5HP CONT. DUTY @ 95VDC but It also says 2.5HP on the label. There are four wires coming out of It, a red wire on one side black on the other and 2 blue wires side by side coming out of the middle.

Anyhow as I mentioned this is not a strong area as far as My knowledge being limited. I just started researching This, and I need to find some more info before I go taking any guesses on the rewiring but this is where I am at right now.

I appreciate all the info.

Greg
 
Greg,

Sorry you've been sick, but glad you're feeling better.

I spent some time digging into the treadmill motors and everything you've discovered jibes with what I learned.

Any DC motor can be run in reverse, it's just a matter of reversing the "+" and "-" leads from the power supply to the motor. One way to do this is with a DPDT (Double Pole, Double Throw) switch. Dave38 (IIRC) still has one or more of his switch boxes available. Having wired one or two of these switches up myself, he's done a really nice neat job. You may simply want to get one of those from him.

The 3-wire variable potentiometer works just fine as a speed control in both directions. Just be careful not to flip the direction from forward to reverse unless the motor is off and stopped. You could blow up your MC-60. And while I'm at it, it may be DC current, but it's still 90 volts and can knock you on your butt, so be careful there.

The MC-60's are fairly plentiful on eBay if you wanted to get another or have a spare. I like the KBIC-120 and KBIC-125 myself, also available on eBay, you just have to watch for a good deal. They are nice and compact and support 12-16 amps (with heat sink).

I can help if you have other questions. My inbox is generally not full.

HTH

Gary
 
The speed control is a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) speed control:
(1) The input for the speed control is 110-120 ac (common household current).
(2) The output on the speed control is rated to put out from 12 VDC upto130 VDC at 8 amps for continuous duty! Because it is a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) speed control, the motor maintains good torque even at slow speeds.
(3) There is a four bolt base for mounting the device on 2" x 5-1/8".
(4) The entire aluminum housing acts as a heatsink. So it keeps cool even at constant use for many hours.
(5) The speed can be controlled from 0-100% by using the 5k Pot speed control knob.
(6) When you start the motor/speed control, you have to turn speed control knob to the stop/reset position before the motor will start. Then you can adjust the speed as desired. This is a built in safety mechanism of the speed control so that you don't turn it "on" and have the motor automatically spinning at full.

If I can help you or you need any additional information just let me know.

Thanks a Million!!
Todd
 
Thanks for the info Gary and Todd, Much Appreciated.

I got a pot from Radio Shack today, but haven't tried It out yet. The treadmill is under a open carport outside, and the cold has finally reached us down here, so after being sick I need to stay out of it for the time being. Maybe when the sun comes out tomorrow I will try It out. If It works then I'll go ahead gut the the machine and bring the stuff inside where I can work on rewiring everything.
 
Greg,

No problem - you take care of yourself - a relapse would be 2-3 times worse than the first go-'round.

Gary
 
Thanks Gary, I could not help Myself the suspense was killing me I suppose, so I just went out there in the dark with a flashlight and braved the cold. I hooked the pot up, and now have speed control, seems to work well. It was dark so I did notice a blue spark inside of the motor. Is this normal, any idea if this Is just spark from the armature or something?

Thanks Greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top