# Hooking treadmill motor back up for bandsaw?



## Bulldogg629 (Apr 5, 2011)

As I posted in a recent thread I got a bandsaw without a motor and a treadmill with one in the same day. I thought I might be able to combine the 2 into something useful. My mistake was that when taking apart the treadmill, I didn’t realize that these motors required their electronics, I figured it would be a simple matter of wiring in a power cord and switch, so I didn’t take photos of how everything was connected. I realize it’s a tall order, but can anyone help me figure out how this thing goes back together? I’ve labeled the connections to make it easier. It seems that 1 = D, 2=C and 5=H. E was screwed to the frame. 3 is supposed to be green but there is no green other than the one screwed to the frame and 7 is supposed to be black from the speed pot but the speed pot only has 1 red and 2 whites. I is the only male connector of the bunch so it cant go to the board, it has to go to one of the other letters. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.


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## williamm (Oct 10, 2011)

Have you tried to look up a schematic by using the make and model in Google?
Have you looked around on the housing or under the machine for a wiring diagram?
That is about all I can suggest without knowing more.


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## Dmeadows (Jun 28, 2011)

follow color code for speed control hookup!
A and B go to 3 and 4(reversing will reverse motor rotation!)
power cord white to AC in White
power cord black to on off switch(either lead)
other switch lead to AC in Black

There should have been a Circuit breaker in the mix also! probably accounts for miss matched male/ female. If necessary you can cut, strip and wire nut the connections.

That should do it!


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## bosox (Jun 12, 2012)

I suggest you hire a mechanic for that. Much more convenient.


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## Dmeadows (Jun 28, 2011)

Jack, I repaired treadmills for 20 years, I have a pretty good idea how the work!


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## bosox (Jun 12, 2012)

Sorry Duane. Didn’t mean to offend you. You must the very person who can help Ray in his problem.


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## Dmeadows (Jun 28, 2011)

bosox said:


> Sorry Duane. Didn’t mean to offend you. You must the very person who can help Ray in his problem.


Oh, no problem Jack. Just wanted Ray to know that it is at somewhat informed info!:laugh:


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## bosox (Jun 12, 2012)

Dmeadows said:


> Oh, no problem Jack. Just wanted Ray to know that it is at somewhat informed info!:laugh:


You mean, a reliable info? There’s no question on that, Ray.


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## Bulldogg629 (Apr 5, 2011)

Thanks Duane, I got it figured out and running, I had forgotten about that breaker too. Now it seems to work but I have 2 smaller problems. When I turn it on, I have to turn the speed dial to at-least 50% of full speed to get it to start and even then it only starts running after about 10 seconds. Is that a malfunction or a feature? I can understand giving people a 10 second pause so they dont throw themselves off the treadmill, but why have half the speed dial useless? And lastly, it doesnt have an RPM rating anywhere on the motor and the identifying numbers it did have turned up nothing on google. Is there a way to figure out the rpm? It would be simple using one of those laser tachs but I cant think of any other reason I would ever use it to justify buying one. Even if I belted it up to the bigger wheel, the big wheel would still be turning too fast to count by eye. Anyway, thanks again for the help


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## Dmeadows (Jun 28, 2011)

Bulldogg629 said:


> Thanks Duane, I got it figured out and running, I had forgotten about that breaker too. Now it seems to work but I have 2 smaller problems. When I turn it on, I have to turn the speed dial to at-least 50% of full speed to get it to start and even then it only starts running after about 10 seconds. Is that a malfunction or a feature? I can understand giving people a 10 second pause so they dont throw themselves off the treadmill, but why have half the speed dial useless? And lastly, it doesnt have an RPM rating anywhere on the motor and the identifying numbers it did have turned up nothing on google. Is there a way to figure out the rpm? It would be simple using one of those laser tachs but I cant think of any other reason I would ever use it to justify buying one. Even if I belted it up to the bigger wheel, the big wheel would still be turning too fast to count by eye. Anyway, thanks again for the help


Glad you got it running! Yes the delayed start is a feature. They seem to take somewhat longer the older they get... probably capacitors getting weak! I really can't give you an accurate answer on RPM though, never had a need to know! We calibrated to mph. If you know its max mph( 8 or 10 generally) and measure both pulleys.. you could calculate it I suppose. Math whizzes?


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Duanne. I'm not familiar with these kinds of motors. So you're saying that it has capacitors that load up when the power is applied.. That when the capacitors are charged, that the motor starts. (delay) That if the capacitors are weak it takes longer or it might not start. (longer delay)

Curious. Would it start right up if you bypassed the capacitors? And does it dump (discharge) the charge in the capacitors when the motor is shut off?


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Dmeadows said:


> I really can't give you an accurate answer on RPM though, never had a need to know! We calibrated to mph. If you know its max mph( 8 or 10 generally) and measure both pulleys.. you could calculate it I suppose. Math whizzes?


Here's some woodworking shop kinds of formula's:


To get blade speed from a motor measured in RPM (circular saw blades):
(Drive pulley/Driver pulley or arbor) * Drive shaft Motor Rpm = Driven Shaft or Arbor RPM,

To get blade speed measured in feet per second (fps = speed at tooth on blade for circular saws, bandsaws, belt sanders, feeders):
(Diameter of pulley or blade measured in feet * Pi) * RPM of arbor or pulley / 60 seconds = fps.

Surface per minute (belt sanders):
Width of tool * fps = sps

Each one builds to the next... :blink:

So going backwards, if you put a crayon mark on your bandsaw blade and knew the size of the blade, you could figure out the fps and/or rpm of the blade... The blade would be the slowest moving part of that, thus the easiest to judge from. Then work backwards with the pulley sizes to get the rpm of the motor. That would be my logical answer to that.

Since Lee works on those types of machines, he could give a better answer, but I didn't see him jumping in on this, so...


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## Bulldogg629 (Apr 5, 2011)

Thats a pretty good idea mike, I hadnt thought of that. But if my blade is doing 3000 fpm as it would be if the motor is in fact 3450rpm, and the blade is 116", that would mean 5 cycles of the blade per second, still too fast to count. Even if I put some tape on the blade so it would hit the table as it went by and make a sound, I think the sounds would blur together as well. But thanks anyway.


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

LOL. Found this for you:
Shop Made Tools - Page 14


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## bosox (Jun 12, 2012)

Mike, that formula for measuring fpm or sfpm(surface feet per minute) for band saws is effective only up to 600 sfpm. Above 600, a tachometer is the best tool for reading speed rate.


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## Dmeadows (Jun 28, 2011)

MAFoElffen said:


> Duanne. I'm not familiar with these kinds of motors. So you're saying that it has capacitors that load up when the power is applied.. That when the capacitors are charged, that the motor starts. (delay) That if the capacitors are weak it takes longer or it might not start. (longer delay)
> 
> Curious. Would it start right up if you bypassed the capacitors? And does it dump (discharge) the charge in the capacitors when the motor is shut off?


Mike, It is a DC Motor. The motor controller(power supply if you will) has capacitors for filtering, time constants and such. They are just a (specialized)regulated DC power supply when you get right down to it! The time delay is intentional. I would not recommend very much redesign as it could also effect the life of the solid state devices.
Yes they do discharge when the controller is off.


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Dmeadows said:


> Mike, It is a DC Motor. The motor controller(power supply if you will) has capacitors for filtering, time constants and such. They are just a (specialized)regulated DC power supply when you get right down to it! The time delay is intentional. I would not recommend very much redesign as it could also effect the life of the solid state devices.
> Yes they do discharge when the controller is off.


Wow. The more I read on people using that type of motor, the more I am interested. Usually when you try to reduce the speed of a motor "electrically" with a switch, you reduce the power to it and it loses the effective torque... One example on a motor was reducing it's speed by 1/2 ended up at 1/10th the torque. Where you usually go with a speed reducing transmission (pulleys) to keep that torque.

Then there's this kind of motor that varies the speed electronically and that is all different and doesn't do that. Looks to me as an inexpensive but worthy modification on a band saw. Yes, I can see where a digital tach would be handy with that.

That link I posted, he did both. Seems to me that conversion is more attractive and has more possibilities than a lot of new band saws. Now have my eyes open for pieces and ideas dancing around in my head...


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## Bulldogg629 (Apr 5, 2011)

Now that the motor is running Ive built a hinged base to let me mount it in the saw and apply tension. I set it up for a test run and it seems to work great. Even with its 10+ year old meat blade it melted through 2x stock, which is far better than my poor table top did with new blades. I imagine the fpm will be more critical when resawing lumber and Ill need to figure it out then, but for now, however fast its going seems good enough. Im not sure how important the speed control will be, I cant think of why I would need it to go any slower, but its a cool function to have. Now I'm working on cleaning it up, its a terrible mess. For ease I was just going to coat it with tractor paint, but the head is cast aluminum and the base is stainless with some rust inside. Id prefer to sandblast the entire thing and just paint the base. Then of course I need to make a table for it. Ive been trying to justify the cost of a sheet of 1/2" mdf to build some jigs, maybe a double layer of that with a sheet of plexiglass to keep from gouging it up? I also got a sheet of stainless off of the outboard table that I removed that would make a nice surface if I could come up with a way to cut it nicely.

Edit: I read about the constant torque thing too in looking these up. It seems these motors are desired by people building wind generators. They're also much smaller than their AC counterparts, my motor is about 4" diameter by 8" long with an 8" external flywheel and fan. I for one wont drive past another treadmill on the side of the road again.


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