# sewing machine motors



## BKtoys

Hi folks  i have 2 of the sewing machine brushless servo dc motors  from supersewingman in ebay . i have had great response from him, his store is in LaMirada Cal.i received them in 1 week. here is a picture of my setup. 
i removed the end that had the mecanism for the foot pedal cut the 3 wires off the switch they are red, yellow and black . i only used the yellow and black on the 2.5K pot i also built a new mount for 2 reasons  1 so the motor is direct drive, with a 6 pin coupler like the taig cnc couplers 2 i wanted more movement on the y axis so i put 3/4" spacers behind the spindle dove tail mount and between the y axis plate and the carriage. you canalso look for Consew on Ebay. i also put all the electronics in a radio shack case


----------



## fretsman

Welcome, and great post you've given. 

May I ask in more detail how you coupled the motor to the original Taig spindle? 

Any chance you have pictures or drawings?

One more question, won't you miss the 10,000 RPM?

Thanks again for sharing,
Dave


----------



## BKtoys

fretsman said:


> Welcome, and great post you've given.
> 
> May I ask in more detail how you coupled the motor to the original Taig spindle?
> 
> Any chance you have pictures or drawings?
> 
> One more question, won't you miss the 10,000 RPM?
> 
> Thanks again for sharing,
> Dave


Hi again  Dave   I built a new coupler it hooks up just like the Taig cnc coupler but i made it 2" in dia. put 6 hples in the two pieces. in the motor piece i had to broach a new keyway  and counter bore for the nut on the motor shaft . i used a heavy wall nylon tubing 1/4" in dia. .sorry i don't have any drawings, cause most of my homemade tooling comes out of my head as i build.


----------



## BKtoys

BKtoys said:


> Hi again  Dave   I built a new coupler it hooks up just like the Taig cnc coupler but i made it 2" in dia. put 6 hples in the two pieces. in the motor piece i had to broach a new keyway  and counter bore for the nut on the motor shaft . i used a heavy wall nylon tubing 1/4" in dia. .sorry i don't have any drawings, cause most of my homemade tooling comes out of my head as i build.


 here i am again here are a few pics of the coupler


----------



## fretsman

Excellent work, there, and thank you for sharing. 

A great idea I'll have to stash away for sure- )

Dave


----------



## dogcatcher

Thanks for the information.


----------



## Desmo

Well done. The sewing machine motor may be what I am looking for on a current project upgrade.
Thank you
Dale


----------



## greenhornet-1

I'm trying to figure out how to make a case trimmer out of a sowing machine motor. I have a few ideas in my head. Need to put them on paper.


----------



## Starlight Tools

"Here is a video of the competition for these low power DC sewing machine servo motors demonstrating what I feared, servos having no more torque at low speed than any other low power DC motor."

[video=youtube;supQ_mWMxg8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=supQ_mWMxg8 [/video]


This was posted on the Lathemaster yahoo group.

Walter


----------



## BKtoys

Starlight Tools said:


> "Here is a video of the competition for these low power DC sewing machine servo motors demonstrating what I feared, servos having no more torque at low speed than any other low power DC motor."
> 
> [video=youtube;supQ_mWMxg8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=supQ_mWMxg8 [/video]
> 
> 
> This was posted on the Lathemaster yahoo group.
> 
> Walter


i don't know if you have used or seen a consew motor, that is what i'm using and it hasn't bogged at all especially when i'm cutting steel. on either my mill or my lathe, both are cnc. the are both brushless servo motors


----------



## Starlight Tools

BK

The issue with these motors is when you need to crawl with them, they have little or no low speed torque.  At higher speeds they are definitely OK.

I wanted to get my scroll saw 924" Beaver that I am sure was used by Noah to build the ark) down so that I could really control the strokes, especially when sanding carbon with it.  These motors could not get low enough to get the blade even moving, unless I was at speeds that were already available using the conventional motor and belt changes.

For an application like your mill, where you are turning at a decent RPM and not starting under a heavy load they will work fine, I am sure.

Walter


----------



## BKtoys

Starlight Tools said:


> BK
> 
> The issue with these motors is when you need to crawl with them, they have little or no low speed torque.  At higher speeds they are definitely OK.
> 
> I wanted to get my scroll saw 924" Beaver that I am sure was used by Noah to build the ark) down so that I could really control the strokes, especially when sanding carbon with it.  These motors could not get low enough to get the blade even moving, unless I was at speeds that were already available using the conventional motor and belt changes.
> 
> For an application like your mill, where you are turning at a decent RPM and not starting under a heavy load they will work fine, I am sure.
> 
> Walter


the issues you have had are not what i'm having at all. on my cnc mill i cut steel at 400 rpm and don't get any bog down at all,the same on my cnc lathe.my motors are brushless dc servo motors.from consew. they are comercial grade


----------



## David S

The video from Sailrite was interesting.  First let me say that Sailrite is an excellent company.  They have the best customer service of any company I have dealt with.  I have one of their sewing machines, but don't have the controller they are proud of.

When you mention milling at 400 rpm, I don't know if that is direct drive, so not sure what the motor is turning.

400 rpm direct drive on a sewing m/c would he almost 7 stiches / second which is very fast for some tricky situations.  So I would imagine that they would be trying to operate the motor below 100 rpm.  Not sure how they work their for machine tools.  I have thinking of one for my lathe.


----------



## hman

It appears that folks are getting a bit confused here - or is it just me? BKtoys has been talking about a "brushless" motor.  Indeed, when you look at his photos, there are no brush covers apparent on the motor housing.  The Sailrite video plainly used a brushed motor - you can see the black brush retainer caps on the side of the motor, near the pulley end.

Though I haven't bought a sewing machine motor myself, I *have* done a lot of looking on ebay.  And I've noted that there appear to be two distinct kinds of motirs offered - some explicitly listed as "brushless", and others that appear to have brushes.  At least one of the latter has even mentioned that they include spare brushes.

Would those of you who've _actually experienced_ problems with sewing machine motors *please* specify exactly which kind you had trouble with?

Many thanks!


----------



## BKtoys

David S said:


> The video from Sailrite was interesting.  First let me say that Sailrite is an excellent company.  They have the best customer service of any company I have dealt with.  I have one of their sewing machines, but don't have the controller they are proud of.
> 
> When you mention milling at 400 rpm, I don't know if that is direct drive, so not sure what the motor is turning.
> 
> 400 rpm direct drive on a sewing m/c would he almost 7 stiches / second which is very fast for some tricky situations.  So I would imagine that they would be trying to operate the motor below 100 rpm.  Not sure how they work their for machine tools.  I have thinking of one for my lathe.


if you go down a few posts  you will see my setup it is direct drive,and i tried to stop it by hand the 100 rpm's didn't drop and burnt the heck out of my hand , i know it's a dumb move oops!!!   these motors are comercial type from consew,they are brushless dc servo motors. the person on ebay is supersewingman , his store is in LaMirada CA. . if i remember right he has a service center also.


----------



## BKtoys

hman said:


> It appears that folks are getting a bit confused here - or is it just me? BKtoys has been talking about a "brushless" motor.  Indeed, when you look at his photos, there are no brush covers apparent on the motor housing.  The Sailrite video plainly used a brushed motor - you can see the black brush retainer caps on the side of the motor, near the pulley end.
> 
> Though I haven't bought a sewing machine motor myself, I *have* done a lot of looking on ebay.  And I've noted that there appear to be two distinct kinds of motirs offered - some explicitly listed as "brushless", and others that appear to have brushes.  At least one of the latter has even mentioned that they include spare brushes.
> 
> Would those of you who've _actually experienced_ problems with sewing machine motors *please* specify exactly which kind you had trouble with?
> 
> Many thanks!


Hi John i'm glad someone caught this minor slip, between brushed & brushless motors.i'm really happy with mine.by the way i live in Apache Junction,AZ


----------



## Sk8ter

BKtoys said:


> if you go down a few posts  you will see my setup it is direct drive,and i tried to stop it by hand the 100 rpm's didn't drop and burnt the heck out of my hand , i know it's a dumb move oops!!!   these motors are comercial type from consew,they are brushless dc servo motors. the person on ebay is supersewingman , his store is in LaMirada CA. . if i remember right he has a service center also.



you seem to know what your talking about ...thats good now if you would please can you do another test at 50rpm....this is where the difference will be 



your talented and eventually be asking some more questions on cnc


Lawrence


----------



## nukefield13

BKtoys said:


> Hi folks  i have 2 of the sewing machine brushless servo dc motors  from supersewingman in ebay . i have had great response from him, his store is in LaMirada Cal.i received them in 1 week. here is a picture of my setup.
> i removed the end that had the mecanism for the foot pedal cut the 3 wires off the switch they are red, yellow and black . i only used the yellow and black on the 2.5K pot i also built a new mount for 2 reasons  1 so the motor is direct drive, with a 6 pin coupler like the taig cnc couplers 2 i wanted more movement on the y axis so i put 3/4" spacers behind the spindle dove tail mount and between the y axis plate and the carriage. you canalso look for Consew on Ebay. i also put all the electronics in a radio shack case
> 
> 
> View attachment 51726
> View attachment 51725



BK, great job on the spindle motor conversion of your CNC Taig Mill.  If possible I would like more info on the electronics that you installed in the Radio Shack case.  You did say that you cut the 3 wires off the existing switch and attached the yellow & black to a 2.5K pot for motor RPM control and I assumed you mounted the controller inside the case.  What I would like to know is it possible on the controller board to attach leads to a external DPDT toggle to reverse the motor direction without using the electronic panel?  This probably sounds off the wall but I was considering using this motor on my X axis manual mill for a Variable Power Feed but I need to be able to reverse the motor for the plus/neg directions.

I also noticed on your Radio Shack front panel that you have the Consew control label and was wondering if it was difficult to remove?

Thanks and ANY info you would like to share since the conversion would be insightful to us all.

..


----------



## BKtoys

nukefield13 said:


> BK, great job on the spindle motor conversion of your CNC Taig Mill.  If possible I would like more info on the electronics that you installed in the Radio Shack case.  You did say that you cut the 3 wires off the existing switch and attached the yellow & black to a 2.5K pot for motor RPM control and I assumed you mounted the controller inside the case.  What I would like to know is it possible on the controller board to attach leads to a external DPDT toggle to reverse the motor direction without using the electronic panel?  This probably sounds off the wall but I was considering using this motor on my X axis manual mill for a Variable Power Feed but I need to be able to reverse the motor for the plus/neg directions.
> 
> I also noticed on your Radio Shack front panel that you have the Consew control label and was wondering if it was difficult to remove?
> 
> Thanks and ANY info you would like to share since the conversion would be insightful to us all.
> 
> ..


yes the switch was simple that way, but the reveres is internal and i don't know of any way to wire a switch in.that is why i put the panel on because the reveres is done thru that panel. its in the manual ,for what the manual is worth.thanks for the compliments.


----------

