My lathe upgrade project!

3/3/23, 12:32 PM #1

Tom Norton
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My lathe upgrade project!

Yesterday with the help of my brother in law the motor control was wired up. These are the bits from an old treadmill. So I now have a 2.5hp variable speed motor.

The next steps are fabrication of a motor/tensioning mountain then building enclosures for the motor controller and a separate one for the digital tachometer.

When this project is completed I will post some pics.

Also thanks to the replies regarding my post about Chucks.I see Woodcraft has a sale on Nova chucks.

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

3/3/23, 6:18 PM #2

Bill Howatt
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2,773 posts

Registered: 1/3/04

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

Great. Interested to see the final project and there always seems to be interest in using treadmill motors.

Don't be surprised if the tach is interesting at first and often ignored later - I think the tendency is to set the speed to what looks comfortable and reasonable. Is handy though when somebody asks, "what speed did you use to....".

Bill

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

3/3/23, 7:27 PM #3

Dick Coers
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Registered: 8/7/07

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

One problem with that 2.5hp rating is that it's optimistic to start with, and if you drop the rpms by half, you drop the hp by half. You need step pulleys in there to keep rpm up.

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

3/3/23, 11:02 PM #4

Walter Ahlgrim
Guest

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

Being that most tread mill motors are DC it should have lots of torque at low RPMs.

Although 2.5 horse power is likely overstated.

Walta

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

3/4/23, 12:26 AM #5

George Balock
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Registered: 1/22/04

Re: My lathe upgrade project!

As i recollect, your lathe has a 12” swing. Even if the HP of the motor is half,what is stated, you should be fine. I had a 16 “ swing Nova worth a 1 HP motor and I could stall it, but most of the time it was not an issue.

My lathe upgrade project!

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