Treadmill motor for a sewing machine??

[Frodo]

Some washing machine motors have a shaft that sticks out on both ends

Fun fun fun

use an old singer bobbin winding assembly as a clutch pulley

when you engage the pulley like you were going to thread a bobbin, the belt tightens on the second shaft

 

[Quade]

Considering you can buy a DC servo for $200 it doesn't make much economic sense.   It could be a fun project.  I mounted a "Sailrite" worker B to my Singer 211.   It worked pretty great but wasn't as convenient as a conventional servo motor.  

What I'm seeing more and more is people re-purposing DC sewing servo's to drill presses and small lathes.  They're compact, powerful and cheap.  Lots of torque from a low RPM. 

[AlZilla]

3 minutes ago, Quade said:

Considering you can buy a DC servo for $200 it doesn't make much economic sens

Sure it does.  Free vs $150 - $200 makes all kinds of sense.

[bladegrinder]

That would depend on a persons capabilities to first get the free treadmill motor then install it in a way that works and doesn't look or work like a rube goldberg job.

[Quade]

Quote

Sure it does.  Free vs $150 - $200 makes all kinds of sense.

Nothing is "free".   It took me 15 minutes to mounts up a servo and be ready to go.   Your "free" treadmill motor costs disassembly time, time to hook up speed control. Time to fab up mounts.  You might need a speed reduced to keep the RPM's on the treadmill motor up because many DC motors depend on RPM's to run the cooling fan fast enough.  You'll need some hookup for the pedal.   

From my perspective, it's  a mistake to discount "time" as part of the cost. 

I'm not suggesting you shouldn't do it. It sounds like fun.  Just that it won't necessarily cost less when you're done. 

[AlZilla]

16 minutes ago, Quade said:

Nothing is "free".   It took me 15 minutes to mounts up a servo and be ready to go.   Your "free" treadmill motor costs disassembly time, time to hook up speed control. Time to fab up mounts.  You might need a speed reduced to keep the RPM's on the treadmill motor up because many DC motors depend on RPM's to run the cooling fan fast enough.  You'll need some hookup for the pedal.   

From my perspective, it's  a mistake to discount "time" as part of the cost. 

I'm not suggesting you shouldn't do it. It sounds like fun.  Just that it won't necessarily cost less when you're done. 

I'm going to suggest that this is not a project you should undertake.

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Quade said:

Nothing is "free".   It took me 15 minutes to mounts up a servo and be ready to go.   Your "free" treadmill motor costs disassembly time, time to hook up speed control. Time to fab up mounts.  You might need a speed reduced to keep the RPM's on the treadmill motor up because many DC motors depend on RPM's to run the cooling fan fast enough.  You'll need some hookup for the pedal.   

From my perspective, it's  a mistake to discount "time" as part of the cost. 

I'm not suggesting you shouldn't do it. It sounds like fun.  Just that it won't necessarily cost less when you're done. 

Simply use the time you waste every day, its free too.  You could also look at it as taking a class in engineering, what would that cost?  From my perspective its also free education so a double win. 

[Frodo]

4 hours ago, AlZilla said:

I'm going to suggest that this is not a project you should undertake.

Agree,  pay others  instead of doing it your self

just so you know

I cleared my land and built my house by myself

I saved a couple of hundred thousand dollars doing so. Working for yourself is well worth the effort if you have skills

if you lack skills then you pay others bills

I have no idea where that meme came from

[bladegrinder]

The guy that built the submersible that went down to the Titanic saved a lot of money too by doing a lot of his own engineering and building that thing himself, although I don’t know if he used old tread mill motors or not, but he obviously had time on his hands to do it…and saved lots of money.

[dikman]

Not a good comparison, he thought he knew better than the experts, ignored advice and believed in "breaking the rules". The result was inevitable.

Some people (me) don't take into account any time spent on something like re-purposing a treadmill as it is a challenge  and fun. The enjoyment outweighs the time. I'm currently making a fishing rod building jig and am already up to version 3 of the motor drive (the first two motors didn't do what I wanted), #3 is an old Singer sewing machine motor. To me the time spent on it isn't a factor - but that's just me.

[bladegrinder]

While it's out in left field, I think it's a pretty good comparison. I think it kind of applies to what were talking about here...

He could have bought-built one like the guy on National Geographic that's made a bunch of dives with no implosions, but he obviously had lots of extra time and I'm pretty sure saving money was on the top of his mind verses producing a proven design.

I'm retired and have a lot of electrical and mechanical background and have a lot going on and not much free time and a lot of folks have one or two jobs, kids and little free time to monkey around with tread mill motors, let alone not knowing which way to turn a left hand screw driver.

I just posted a tread mill motor project I did here so I'm not trying to put a negative light on using them but like I said I'm still waiting to see someone do it to a sewing machine.

Like Quade said, you can pretty much plug and play a servo motor in 15 min. and be done without going in the poor house

there's lots of fun ways to save money but there not all for everyone.

 

 

[dikman]

No argument from me about servos, at their price point I can't see any point in messing around with anything else for sewing machines. The tricky part with using anything else is working out a suitable foot control to give speed control. That is the point I'm up to with my rod-building jig, the speed control for the motor is a potentiometer and I have to figure out how to make it work from a foot pedal.

Fortunately I have the time to do it............

[chuck123wapati]

14 hours ago, bladegrinder said:

The guy that built the submersible that went down to the Titanic saved a lot of money too by doing a lot of his own engineering and building that thing himself, although I don’t know if he used old tread mill motors or not, but he obviously had time on his hands to do it…and saved lots of money.

 the Wright brothers, Thomas Edison and Steve Wozniak all saved a alot of money too! 

Saying just throw some money at it isn't that easy for some folks that have much more free time than they do free money. Spending 200 bucks isn't free any way you look at the subject so no need to argue that point. Now if a guy considers his personal time as money then with that thinking  just buy the damn sewing machine already to go, why waste time buying a servo.

[AlZilla]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

Now if a guy considers his personal time as money then with that thinking  just buy the damn sewing machine already to go, why waste time buying a servo.

Why sew anything at all?  Just pay others to do such menial labor.

Anyway, there are a lot of Youtube videos with solutions to control speed on these things. An SCR is one option, with a potentiometer. I'm thinking either a lever adapted to the pot or why not just a foot controller from a sewing machine?

I have an ad out looking for a treadmill.

[bladegrinder]

Another thing about tread mill motors is they can be used as DC generators. The first one I got years ago I was going to make a windmill with a voltage regulator to charge an RV battery. That didn’t happen though, I built a homemade solar panel instead. I’ve got a 75’ ham radio tower I need to put up first. Connecting a drill to the shaft of the motor I was getting 19 volts for as fast as that drill would go. Also, anyone messing with these you’ll see two blue wires coming out, they can be cut and capped, they go to an over temperature sensor inside the motor.

[chuck123wapati]

21 hours ago, bladegrinder said:

Another thing about tread mill motors is they can be used as DC generators. The first one I got years ago I was going to make a windmill with a voltage regulator to charge an RV battery. That didn’t happen though, I built a homemade solar panel instead. I’ve got a 75’ ham radio tower I need to put up first. Connecting a drill to the shaft of the motor I was getting 19 volts for as fast as that drill would go. Also, anyone messing with these you’ll see two blue wires coming out, they can be cut and capped, they go to an over temperature sensor inside the motor.

thanks for that info on the wires. A dc generator would be nice too.