Use a Treadmill DC Drive Motor and PWM Speed Controller for powering tools

Power tools such as Metal cutting mills and lathes, Drill presses, bandsaws, sanders and more may require .5HP to 2HP motors with the ability to fine tune the speed while maintaining torque.

Coincidentally most Treadmills use a 80-260 VDC motor with a suitable HP rating and a PWM motor speed controller to allow the user to change the belt speed and keep a good constant speed and torque while running on it.

There are Commercial DC Motor/PWM controllers available or you can build the PWM circuit from scratch and buy all the components seperately but you will spend a lot of time and money either way. All the parts you need are on the treadmill.

Tear your own apart or get one on Ebay.
(shameless self-promotion below)

Motor/controller combos on Ebay

Safety and Disclaimers- You should have some knowledge of electricity and the dangers of household current and know your abilities/inabilities. Serious injury may occur to you or others from use/misuse of these motor set-up. If you are in doubt DO NOT ATTEMPT. IT CAN KILL YOU. Any Crazy Ideas found here REQUIRE your testing. Your appliction and use of any ideas here are all on you and you agree I cannot be held liable. You equipment should have On/Off safety switches, Fuse protection, ground wires on your machine as required and your power source should have ground fault interupters, circuit breakers,properly grounded sockets and cords and always unplug equipment before tinkering and any other safety practise I am forgetting to mention.

Step 1 Motor Vid

Testing the motor/controller

Comments

[mkoziol2]

I don't have any of the nomenclature you mentioned on my board, it has a digital display as mentioned above. From the schematic attached I only see the one wire which mentions PWM. I have read that i might need a 555 timer?? I havent been able to find a clear answer anywhere. Can anyone guide me in the right direction as to what I need to do to have manual control of my treadmill motor?

[gfreed]

Any idea where to get a pulley to fit on a 17mm shaft? I guess I could drill out the center of 5/8 inch bore but I would think it would be difficult to keep it perfectly centered.

[gfreed]

Any photos of the sewing machine project?

[dblahnik]

Type O, its a Lifestyle 2808 treadmill sorry :(

[dblahnik]

I have a motor and control from a Lifestyle 2802 treadmill.
It has a delayed start feature,does any one no how to adjust or disable the delay start . I am going to use the motor for a pig roaster (spit) and I dont want my Piggy to burn before this thing kicks in. I havent timed it but it seems to take 30 seconds to 1 minute before it kick on ?

[Radionics]

Hi great information base for treadmills..

I've got a Power First Treadmill here with a 180V DC motor and controller board.

The interesting thing is, the board has L W H as you have already covered. But it also has an additional H M.

Any ideas what the extra H and M are?

[ezra1976]

I built a pitching machine out of a treadmill motor and used all the same controls from the treadmill but the motor speeds up to the desired rpm but then will slow down for a bit then speed back up...does anyone know a solution to this?

[ncblu]

did you pull the flywheel off, the motor needs it to maintain an steady constant speed, moreso than without one. when the motor reaches speed the controller will dial back a bit and unless there is something to keep momentum, the motor will slow down some, then the controller plays catch-up so you get that rise/fall speed effect.

[rjeblogue]

Brilliant-Excellent-I hope you don't mind that I posted a vid link & pics. I'm afraid I didn't catch your name so I can give credit. Thaks again!

[rjeblogue]

Does it slow down from the resistance of shooting out the ball? Did you incorporate the motor with or without the flywheel. If the answer is: it slows down when shooting the ball and the flywheel is incorporated-Try designing it without the flywheel-perhaps

[ezra1976]

The flywheel is still attached with the wheel mounted to the flywheel...the motor doesn't miss a beat when the ball hits the wheel..just annoying when you have to wait 30 sec after every 2 pitches or so.

[rjeblogue]

I would love to link to your instructable ,or post a pic of your pitching machine with your name to the credit if you wouldn't mind. I would also love to post pics/descriptions of any other treadmill powered contraption. Thanks!

[rjeblogue]

Try adjusting the ACCEL/DECEL trimpot. This setting determines the time the motor takes to ramp to a higher (or lower) speed. One direction will increase the acceleration and deceleration time, and the other will... visa versa. Another option (least preferable) is to run it without the flywheel. It makes it very responsive to changes in torque but you will lose a lot of HP, it may require other trimpot adjustments and you'd have to re-design a contraption that already works pretty good.

[ezra1976]

I found a small set screw labeled "max spd" turned it full CCW and that did it...stays at a stable speed..thanks. I put up a couple pictures and a short video of it working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEUYII-SYGg
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv111/ezra1976/treadmill3.jpg
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv111/ezra1976/treadmill2.jpg
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv111/ezra1976/treadmill1.jpg

[marcward86]

awesome. i just got a free treadmill (from a moving job) and i'm planning on using it for a lathe. can I use the display and buttons as a speed controller once I get the motor out of the treadmill and attached to....the rest of the lathe setup?

[ncblu]

yes you can and with great results. i made one and used the guts from the treadmill i found lying alongside the road on my way home ( i hope no-one missed it, but if you didnt notice it falling off your vehicle, i cant help you). i already had a headstock but didnt have any pulleys that fit. the first pulleys were made of wood- carefully. this let me mill the aluminum ones to replace them. if you can keep the existing flywheel on the motor for cooling and smooth speed control. the unit functions so well i got another treadmill and am in the process of making a vertical milling machine to go along with the lathe.

[sillywilly]

If it works, absolutely. They can even be reversed (with additional work)! See my above reply to nickmiletich.....

[ncblu]

add an elbow and a length of 3"pvc and you have a machine gun for tennis balls

[ncblu]

is that what i think it it is - that is sweet. i could use one to launch tennis balls for my dog to chase

[ncblu]

if you can use the motor with the flywheel, it's a good thing since the fan blades will help draw the heat off. i use one of these motors on my 8-10 lathe because they pack so much torque and the controller works great but mostly because it helps provide inertia for the lathe, helps cool the motor and if you ever run one of these motors at high speed without the flywheel, you'll hear the motor wind up and slow down as the controller tries to maintain the set speed. i use an angle grinder to shape the pulley to a v-groove - worked like a charm. on another i bored out the center of the pulley to slip over the flywheels existing pulley and bolted the new pulley to the flywheel ( careful not to change the balance of the flywheel here, use bolts, spaced evenly around the flywheel/pulley setup to keep things balanced or it will vibrate like a son-o-gun)

[jtcalamusa]

I have a motor from a treadmill that I got for free off Craigslist. It has four wires, red, black and 2 blues. It seems, from reading your article, that it has a thermal protection circuit based on the two blue wires. If I want to use this motor as part of a generator do I need to use these two blue wires? Thanks.

[ncblu]

the two blue wires are thermal overload wires. you dont need them. loosen the one nut thats holding the wires in place and the overload slides out. now you could keep them in there and tie one blue wire to the red wire and apply power to the black and blue wire if you want to use the overheating function. personally i take it out cuz i never need it.

[vrajawat]

good idea Rjeblogue

check out this nice tutorial on working of DC motors
http://www.engineersgarage.com/insight/how-dc-motor-works

[nickmiletich]

Which treadmills have you found work best for the conversion?

[sillywilly]

nickmiletich,
I don't think it makes too much difference. I have gotten 3 "dead or dying" treadmills off craigslist free section over a two year span. One was only missing the little safety key which I bypassed while the another was suffering from loss of lubrication to the treadmill belt. The last "dead" one was nothing more than junk stuck into the the treadmill by a toddler which got into the belt and jammed it! All of this to say, you may not have to pay for one which still has good motor and speed control! Most people don't know that treadmills will need some maintenance after they get older. Things like cleaning them out, lubing belt with special lube, adjusting tension of belt, replacement of drive belt coming off motor, even faulty wall plug or treadmill plug! These motor/speed controls work good for all kinds of stuff like industrial sewing machine, drill stand, old or homemade lathes, adjustable fans, stationary sander, and even for windmill generators! The possibilities are almost endless!

[lwilson15]

What is the shaft size on the Treadmill Motors ? ( PMA ) With the left handed threads. Thanks for your time

[sillywilly]

lwilson15, Both of the ones I have access to at this time measure about 12.6mm or real close to 1/2inch. I say "about" because they both still have the flywheel on them so I used the smooth hole at end of flywheel. Both the ones I measured are two wire permanent magnet motors. Every one I have messed with is left-hand thread because of torque direction when activating treadmill belt. Like others have said, if you plan to reverse direction on these motors, you should provide some means of locking the shaft so it will not loosen. Permatex makes a good thread lock compound if you do not plan to ever remove it again.

[cbh4]

has anyone ever found the actual circuit board schematics for the SCR control board, the Power supply board and the console control board?

[kernbigo]

I have a threadmill board 4f33 nordic track, reebock, sears bought on ebay trying to figuire where to wire the 5k potentometer? help Kernbigo

[Dream Dragon]

This is just the kind of information I've been looking for, now all I need is the treadmill...

[tstens]

This is a totally awesome idea. I'm always looking for ways to homebrew garage tools. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled at yard sales...maybe you could add another 'ible on how to rig the treadmill motor up to the various tools you use.

[sillywilly]

http://www.craigslist.org "free" section works great as a source for tools, dead or even alive followed by the "barter" section then the "tools" section. Some cities haven't caught on to how useful craigslist is but here in Portland, Oregon, wow! If it is an item that is pretty rare, there is even a site that makes it easy to search multiple craigslist cities as well as Ebay and Amazon at the same time! it's called http://www.searchtempest.com/
enjoy

[rjeblogue]

Thanks, I added some more pics of mounts. Hope it helps.

[marwanco]

Hi, Please can you tell me what is the resistance of variable resistor inside Foot Pedal, cause my wife sewing machine need similar pot. At the moment I hard wired it, and it works only at full speed. Thanks

[lukejenson]

I tried to do something similar with a FHP DC motor I got at a garage sale. It didn't go very far tho. I found out that you can buy a DC motor for cheap from LEESON. I think they even supply these motors to treadmill manufacturers.

www.clrwtr.com/LEESON-DC-Motors.htm

[Pyrotechnic-Robot]

This is a really useful instructable!
treadmill motors are sooo powerful and accurate it is perfect for many projects

to sum up any confusion (if there is any) all you have to do is connect a pot to the DC motor controler board. (the big one with the heatsinc)
In the model I have there is a 3 wire buss wire that connects the "controller board" with the "DC motor controller board". these wires are red white and black.
(pot is facing you) You will connect the left lead of the pot to the black, center to the white and the right to the red.

This will only work if the circuit board is not shot. just give power to the  DC motor controller board connect the motor and it's blue wires and you should be good!
.
I give full credit to this instructable and it's maker. good job and thanks!

[diluded000]

I used a treadmill motor to power a pottery wheel I made.  It is geared down about 40:1 with a pulley and sheave from the farm store.  It uses the motor control board from the original treadmill, with a little housing built around it.  I have a digital wah-wah pedal somebody gave me that I am going to adapt as a foot pedal control to replace the linear slider I am using now.  It has speed control using feedback from the motor, but it is a little slow (over one sec) to respond.  Not sure I would want to deal with that lag on a cutting tool, but a lathe would likely be a good application.  I've fired a couple of kilns full of bowls I threw using this setup.

[anibioman]

 can you use a dimmer switch for lights as a speed control

[kgn_1983]

sir i want to know about , how to operat manually trade mill machine without controller interface.

[mnichols]

I have a treadmill motor identical to this one and to remove the flywheel I used my heat gun set to "high" (1000F) and heated the grooved pulley section for about 4-5 minutes - heating all the way around. I then used a punch and hammer to hit the flywheel clockwise - setting the punch at an angle in one of the two holes drilled into the flywheel on the underside of the flywheel. It loosened right up and spun off with no issues. It was NOT going to happen without the heat. The heat just expanded the threaded part of the flywheel, breaking loose its grip on the threads. Hope this helps! Mark