Your Clutch drive Motors ?

[nylonRigging]

Curious .. What is everyone else doing with there old clutch motors ?  off all there machines .

Are they now just obsolete dinosaur, that is a throw away No Keeper ?  ,also there 50+ LB. each all boxed up. So it really cost more for shipping than there worth .
I spring cleaning now and making ( need room )  . have several of them all boxed up that I been saving under the cutting tables, .. So, there just a Dumpster item now with Servo drive as the industrial standard now  ?
.

[bullmoosepaddles]

Several years ago I accepted an offer for a free motor. I paid shipping from GA to NC, about $25 if I remember correctly. It sits under my bench currently. I intend to use it as a motor for a buffing wheel. With a 1.75 in drive to 6 in driven pulley set, that will slow down the revolutions to roughly 1000 rpm. It is a heavy duty motor with foot control. For $25 bucks I will give it a try. Trying to  work a small leather shop into my the corner of my wood shop. Its coming along slowly.     

[Handstitched]

@nylonRigging I'm still using mine, and ' touch wood' ,  they are still going just fine. Here in Australia, they around $300+ a piece to buy new,   and I guess around the $120- $150 for a used unit,   so theres no way I'd be throwing them out.  But if you really need to get rid of them , sell them really cheap to someone that needs one to at least get some money back from them , or donate them , rather than throw them out. 

HS

[dikman]

I stripped (kept the pulleys and shafts) and junked two, both old Singers that were potentially dangerous due to the age and condition of the wiring. I gave one of the more "modern" style to a mate to experiment with and sold two on gumtree for $20! Turned out the guy who bought them had a couple of machines he was repairing and needed the motors, so at least they were being used. I had visions of using them but it was just too hard to convert them into something usable and they were just taking up room in my shed.

[Constabulary]

Most common clutch motors run at either approx 1400 rpm or 2800 rpm. The 2800 rpm motors are rather useless IMO (with focus on leather worker or hobbyists). No one beside professional seamstress can really comfortably handle this speed. The 1400 can probably slowed down to a acceptable speed level with a speed reducer and you can sell them for maybe 20 - 50 bucks I´d say. But shipping them can be a pain because often  people do not know how to pack up delicate heavy items properly (broken clutch lever or mounting base). But keep in mind if you sell them for 50 bucks and add the shipping thats about 1/2 the price of a modern servo and you (as a buyer) still have an old outdated energy consuming motor. Who really wants this nowadays?

BTW - College Sewing in the UK kicks out their new 1425 rpm clutch motors for 28 GBP + tax.

https://www.college-sewing.co.uk/1-2hp3pls-3ph-three-phase-low-speed-ho-hsing-clutch-motor.html

That probably shows how the demand for clutch motors nowadays is. Of course - it always depends on your local market...

If it was me I would most likely not buy a clutch motor for my personal use (meaning sewing) But maybe you or someone else can re-purpose them for other leather machines.

Sometimes scrap yards buy old motors for the copper

Conclusion:  if it was me and the motors are 1400 rpm I would sell them for 20-30 bucks for pick up only other than that I´d take them to the scrap yard along with other scrap metal you probably have collected over the years (Some male folks have the tendency to collect metal parts for the "you never know" purpose - guess how I know )

Edited June 10, 2020 by Constabulary

[Bert51]

I made a disk sander and belt sander on a shaft for a friend, I used a treadle  and when he uses it he just uses the treadle and it's safe if he's not pushing down on the treadle.

Bert.

[Matt S]

I really am loathed to throw out clutch motors, since they're such high quality, robust units, but struggle to find alternative uses for them and there is virtually no resale value where I live. I think I've junked at least three over the years just so I wasn't stubbing my toes all the time.

I did use one as a starter motor for a rotary phase converter motor for a bit, with the brake removed, before I realised that it the whole contraption was overkill and rebuilt it as a static converter. That motor is still kicking about the workshop waiting a new life. I've thought about using it as a burnisher but am leery about the amount of torque it has. I suppose I could build it into a disc sander, a polisher, a dust extractor or some other machine but that would be building a solution and then looking for a problem for it to solve.

I guess it's going to remain under the workbench for a bit longer!

[CowboyBob]

WE sell them to the Amish,they extend the shaft & use them for clutches on their lineshafts.

[toxo]

I'm guessing it wouldn't be hard to t run some pulleys and pillow blocks to make a burnisher or a sander etc.

[DonInReno]

If someone is on a budget and looking for parts to cobble together a speed reducer there are most of the parts already assembled in the nose of a clutch motor. 
 

Parts 11-16 and 2 are the bearing housing/shaft assembly that spins when the clutch is engaged.   The shaft already has the original small pulley on one end and the flange (11) can be replaced with larger pulley on the other or some pulleys can have the hub removed and simply bolted to that existing flange.   Then the bearing housing (17) has to be held somehow - a couple of u bolts securing it to a wood board or whatnot.