Tread Mill Motor Vs Vfd

I am familiar with the GS2 drive, and buy a lot from Automation Direct, but on this one I would go with the Teco VFD motor combination from Dealers Electric. You essentially get the 3 phase motor for free, and the Brook motor is a pretty decent brand. Just pick the Hp and speed motor you want, the Teco will handle up to 1 Hp. The newer Teco L510 series has Sensorless Vector Drive which the GS2 doe not. This provide more low end torque. Teco's are very easy to setup and the directions are fairly straight forward. I think a VFD is as easy as a treadmill DC motor drive to setup, but to each their own.
 
I recommend a VFD over a treadmill motor. The treadmill motors I have looked at have a rated speed of ~ 5000 rpm (torque drops off as you slow them down). You might need to add a jackshaft to get full power from the treadmill motor.
 
If the original motor was 3 ph and the VFD will work with it I would go that way. The treadmill motor would take a bunch of time to hook it up and it is open and not a good way to keep trash out of it.
 
people keep mentioning that whole open thing but I haven't gotten a single chip inside mine yet and I've produced about 3 shopping bags full of swarf since I installed. Now if it was powering a grinder, then I'd worry some.

I do agree though that the treadmill motor would be more work than just putting a VFD on a 3ph motor. There's a lot of fabrication and wiring needed to get a treadmill motor up and running and you'll still be struggling to get the low speed low enough.
 
mattthemuppet said:
people keep mentioning that whole open thing but I haven't gotten a single chip inside mine yet and I've produced about 3 shopping bags full of swarf since I installed.
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Where is it located relative to the action? My present motor gets chips all over the end opposite the pulley, which is the intake end of the DC motor. Swarf in a high-voltage DC motor can have exciting results.
 
behind and to the left of the headstock, so not in any direct chip path but there are plenty of chips on the bench around it. Also the intake end of a treadmill motor is just behind the pulley or flywheel, so any chips would have to get past the fan (on mine) or flywheel and then get blown into a relatively obstructed high air pressure space. Not saying it can't happen, obviously, but I think people get more worked up about it than is warranted.
 
mattthemuppet said:
Also the intake end of a treadmill motor is just behind the pulley or flywheel, so any chips would have to get past the fan (on mine) or flywheel and then get blown into a relatively obstructed high air pressure space.
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That depends on the design. Some use a centrifugal fan integral with the flywheel/pulley so that air is sucked into the far end. Others have a bladed fan on the end opposite the pulley blowing air into and over the motor.That's how the one I'm going to use was set up.
 
ah, fair enough. I'm only going off the 2 I have, clearly there are other designs :) To be honest, I'm not sure how much air goes through the motor, it's a pretty high impedance route. Still worth thinking about in the design though.
 
mattthemuppet said:
To be honest, I'm not sure how much air goes through the motor, it's a pretty high impedance route.
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In most design most of the air blows over the outside of the motor to cool it. Some does go through, though, and it probably accounts for quite a bit of heat.
 
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