Model Forum / General / Models / December 2009

You will need the controller and to get the wiring from the
manufacturer/washer serviceman inorder to run this motor which is
designed to run under closed loop control. There will be a tacho
generator on the motor which tells the controller how fast it is going
and changes the voltage accordingly. the controller has two speeds wash
and spin. Wash is not powerful enough at 1/8 hp but spin power is just
about ok for a small lathe.
360 watts is about 1/2 hp but the motor will be turning at 10500 rpm!!

I have seen people use the big pulley off the drum to get the speed down
to something manageable.

However, your motor is only rated to spend 15% of the time at the 1/2 hp
setting - 9 minutes in every hour!

The motor is almost certainly open frame and therefore needs protecting
from swarf and yet keeping cool otherwise the 9 minutes will have to be
reduced even further.

Overall it is not a good idea to use these motors for machine tools.
Buy a 4 pole 3 phase induction motor and an inverter from somewhere like
the inverter supermarket and you will have a much more suitable solution.

Bob

John wrote on 23/12/2009 :

That is rated about 1/2 of an HP at its full speed of 10.5K RPM. As you
will probably need to reduce that speed by around 10:1 or more it will
loose even more HP. These type of motors usually provide some sort of
speed feedback to the controller, so the motor can be set to a fairly
precise speed. It will also have a limited duty cycle when producing
maximum power, with lots of time needed to recover and cool down again.
You might be able to improve on that with some forced air cooling.

I would doubt the controller is of much use, other than to use for
components to build something more appropriate. It will be run time
limited for one and probably has a pic or microprocessor controlling
and ramping up its speed gradually, unless you can find some means to
bypass these controls. What you need is a series of speed switches, or
a pot to set the speed.