Thread: Variable speed treadmill/Lathe Conversion

Steve, if you have a look at the 9x20Lathe group on Yahoo there are a lot of people who have done this on their 9x20 metal lathe.

From memory Steve Bedair also has done this on his 9x20, see his site here

Steve Bedair's 9 x 20 Lathe Page

But with the cost of a 1hp VFD now in the low $200s and a 1hp 3ph motor quite often available for less than $30 (paid $10 for my last one), that is the way I would be going.

I tried it. Succeeded once out of 3. Someone was selling motors and controllers at a really good price and I needed to have a slow speed variable speed set up at work for a photography project.
The biggest problem with these is that they are set to go back to the slowest speed when you turn them off. Someone came up with a modification by removing a transistor and shorting across another lead. I did it successfully on the first one. On the other 2 I did exactly the same thing but it didn't work. I never did get them running so I have 2 good motors with 6 leads and can't figure out how to make them run even in single speed.
I have been installing variable frequency drives and 3 phase motors in my other lathes and this is definitely the way to go. It's more expensive but you don't lose all the power when you slow the motor down the way you do with DC drives.

Have found the following item,as I am not real savvy with electrics is this the style of thing that I need to convert my VL200 to variable speed when used with a 1hp 3phase motor.
Thanks again all comments and advice welcomed.
Steve
1.5KW variable speed drive single to 3 phase - V/F VSD - eBay, Electric Motors, Electrical, Industrial. (end time 19-Sep-10 14:46:27 AEST)

Hi Steve, i am looking to do the same thing with my symtec so i called vicmarc and they have the switch and speed control all in a small box that can be mounted any were, the price was $189 + postage its in there cateldog on page 24 it has a reversing button on it as well, not sure why that is.

Cheers Tim

P.S. sorry i thought this would be a better option because i was going to do the same thing, but not being to savvy with electrics ill go the vicmarc way.

Tim, if you are looking at page 13 of their 2007 catalogue, the switch box with 4 controls, stop/start/fwd-rev and a speed control knob, then that is only a control box which plugs in to the Vicmarc electronic controller.

It would not give you variable speed control on any other lathe, in fact not on a Vicmarc lathe either. You would need a VFD similar to the one shown above to achieve that.

In fact if you look at this thread

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f177/v...7/#post1209133

you will find that converting a Vicmarc lathe (VL200) to EVS would cost $1380.

I brought 2 1.5kw vsd's of a different brand of ebay and fitted them to a wood lathe and a linisher I was given from work that was going to be thrown out.They are both 2800rpm 3 phase motors and work good on a remote controls I made with stop/start and a 5k ohm pot they work a treat ,I have 3 all told the only problem is working out the correct inputs to be put into the vsd drives .The motors do not run hot .The brand I brought was the SJA the advantage is the control panel comes out and a cable is supplied for so you can use it remotely so you do not hvae to do as I did and make a remote unit.And no I am no way connectted to the seller.

penguin