Treadmill motor conversion for planer feed - running too fast

[ErichKeane]

Unfortunately I don't think it's threaded. I'll double check when I'm back in tomorrow but I think it's just a shallow dimple sort of thing. There's no part of this shaft exposed at all to get a grip on

Yep, I figured that would be the case :/ I wonder if you could get the motor to break itself lose by running it in reverse with a pair of vice grips on the big round disk, and let it crash into a hard surface? If you can get the motor to spin up quick enough to do so (high enough speed in 2/3 of a rotation) it might break it loose.

 

[FanMan]

Mine looked the same. Probably no point taking it off, at least that's what I concluded... any V-belt will require a larger pulley than the poly-V belt used anyway. What I did was to bore out a standard V-belt pulley to slip over the existing pulley, and locked it into place with the new pulley's set screws (I filed a flat for the set screw onto the old poly-v grooves). Worked perfectly:

Another Treadmill Conversion

There are a few "treadmill conversion" threads here with varying amounts of information, but I thought I'd summarize my own experiences here in one single thread as I progress. As of this writing, it's still a work in progress: I've wanted for awhile to convert my Jet 15 mill/drill to a...

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[ErichKeane]

Ah! The black disk is separate from the pulley! KevinH: You can hold the black part and spin the pulley.

 

[FanMan]

No, you misunderstand (if you're looking at my pictures). The old poly-v pulley and flywheel are one, I bored out a new pulley to slip over the existing poly-v pulley.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Most of the cheaper motors are LH threaded. Hold the other end of the motor shaft in a bench vise, grab the flywheel in both hands and turn it clockwise. That motor looks like a nice one that I put on my lathe which is definitely 1/2-13 LH threaded. I built a 2 step polyV pulley for it and bought a tap for the internal threads. Also put a screw in the end of the shaft as extra insurance against the pulley threading off.



I've also done it as FanMan shows above, turning down the original polyV pulley part of the flywheel and slipping a regular V pulley over it. I've also made a top hat stub shaft to attach an original stepped V pulley to (for the mill) so I could use the original spindle pulley.

If you were to make a jackshaft, I'd suggest keeping the original flywheel/ pulley and match it to a treadmill roller shaft pulley. The output of the jackshaft can be whatever matches up to the pulley on your planer. Pretty sure I have one of those treadmill roller shaft pulleys around - you're welcome to it for the price of postage.

 

[ErichKeane]

No, you misunderstand (if you're looking at my pictures). The old poly-v pulley and flywheel are one, I bored out a new pulley to slip over the existing poly-v pulley.

Ah, I did misunderstand. False alarm OP :/ I thought those were the threads!

The KevinH actually needs a smaller pulley, so I don't think that would help in this case.

 

[hman]

Most of the cheaper motors are LH threaded. Hold the other end of the motor shaft in a bench vise, grab the flywheel in both hands and turn it clockwise.

Matt - I've not seen "the other end of the motor shaft" in any of Kevin's photos, but Kevin did say he couldn't get to the shaft. So I'd surmise that the shaft does not stick out of the other end of the motor.

Kevin - you MIGHT be able to take the far end bell off the motor. But then again, if luck is not with you, the heads of the assembly screws will be on the end with the flywheel If that's tha case, you might be able to drill a strategic hole or two thru the flywheel, and access the heads of the screws thru the hole. Overall, you've got quite a sticky situation on your hands. Good luck!

 

[DanHarold]

The cast iron pulley/fan thread on my treadmill motor is left handed.
People have burned up these controllers. Add a computer case fan to flow over it.
I would add a fan to the motor too if you remove the original one.
Its a great idea to have variable speed on the rollers.
As others have said gear it down.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

hman, you can take the end off. Takes a little bit of fiddling, but the cover (or fan, can't remember) is removeable. Once the fan is removed, there's plenty of motor shaft to grip. It's exactly how I got the flywheel off mine and my motor looks identical.

 

[KevinH]

Mine looked the same. Probably no point taking it off, at least that's what I concluded... any V-belt will require a larger pulley than the poly-V belt used anyway. What I did was to bore out a standard V-belt pulley to slip over the existing pulley, and locked it into place with the new pulley's set screws (I filed a flat for the set screw onto the old poly-v grooves). Worked perfectly:

Another Treadmill Conversion

There are a few "treadmill conversion" threads here with varying amounts of information, but I thought I'd summarize my own experiences here in one single thread as I progress. As of this writing, it's still a work in progress: I've wanted for awhile to convert my Jet 15 mill/drill to a...

www.hobby-machinist.com

I was thinking of doing precisely this. The diameter comes in at an awkward 32.4mm and was wondering if I could 'convince' a 32mm taper lock bush to fit over it...