Converting Treadmill Motor

[Chris Hamel]

I recently obtained a treadmill dirt cheap and was wanting to use the motor on my drill press. Somebody gave a motor several years back and I was able to adapt it to my bandsaw including bypassing all of the display and the control panel by wiring in a simple potentiometer. On that one the place to hook the potentiometer was clearly marked with "SPD".

My recent acquisition however has no such marking. It is from an older (2002) "Keys Health Milestone 4200" treadmill. The motor runs great and would be easy to mount, but I really don't want to have to find a place for the control panel. It has a 14 pin connector from the control panel. Anybody out there ever fool with one of these?

thanks,

Chris

 

[hman]

I've repurposed a treadmill motor/controller for a drill press myself. Here's a link to how I mounted it:
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/mounting-treadmill-motor-to-a-mill-how-to.44443/#post-379756
If you scroll down a bit, you'll see more posts that show how I adapted the original pulley on the drill press.

As for the controller - the key thing to look is the model number of the circuit board. It's the (older) MC-60 that makes use of a speed pot. The MC-60 has been supplanted by a number of more modern, digitally controlled motor controllers. Replacing the treadmill's "front panel" is not a trivial exercise with these controllers.

An alternative, you can use a Minarik MM23001C controller, MSRP $129, also available from Surplus Center for $85:
http://www.minarikdrives.com/p-17383-mm23001c.aspx
https://www.surpluscenter.com/Elect...rs/90-180-VDC-SPEED-CONTROL-W-POT-11-2269.axd

Beel makes a similar product ($199 MSRP):
http://www.beel.ca/smc-00.html

Galco sells one from KB electronics for $77:
https://www.galco.com/buy/KB-Electronics/KBIC-120

And, of course, you can sometimes find MC-60 controllers on eBay. Prices vary.

 

[John Hasler]

I recently obtained a treadmill dirt cheap and was wanting to use the motor on my drill press. Somebody gave a motor several years back and I was able to adapt it to my bandsaw including bypassing all of the display and the control panel by wiring in a simple potentiometer. On that one the place to hook the potentiometer was clearly marked with "SPD".

My recent acquisition however has no such marking. It is from an older (2002) "Keys Health Milestone 4200" treadmill. The motor runs great and would be easy to mount, but I really don't want to have to find a place for the control panel. It has a 14 pin connector from the control panel. Anybody out there ever fool with one of these?

thanks,

Chris

Post the information printed on the controller itself.

 

[Chris Hamel]

It says "Keys Health" 08-0115"

I just did some more checking and experimenting. I think I have a solution. I can use the PC board that that runs the display without having keep the display. There is a rocker switch that controls the speed and I found where I can trigger power up and start and stop. It means I will have to use two PC boards to make it work, but I can deal with that.

 

[hman]

Great news! Glad to hear you could make it work.