# Atlas 618 with DC treadmill motor conversion



## Takdashark (Sep 2, 2017)

Hello all,

I'm new here and have already tak n a lot away from the forum. I probably don't have much to contribute, but maybe this will help someone out there. 

I used a standard MC-60 controller and treadmill motor with a simple tach kit off amazon that uses a Hall effect sensor. I got a little electronics enclosure to house the tach, pot, wiper on/off switch (start and stop with out losing your speed). I mounded the sensor on the top of the gear train cover  and use a small rare earth magnet on the spindle nut. 

I'm using a standard sheave a bored to 17mm to for the pulley on the motor. The fan is a simple computer fan (120v) wired to the on off switch. I made a flange and welded it to a tube and smoothed it with body filler to transition. I still have to neaten up the wiring on to the fan and motor. 

I made a plywood cabinet with two drawers to house some tooling and such, it sits on top of a rolling cart so I can tuck it away when not in use. I'm going to make something to anchor the cart when using the lathe I think. Any ideas are welcome! 

I'll take some more pics of the control board hidden behind a drawer shortly


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## Kernbigo (Sep 2, 2017)

looks great, i have done several like that all work great


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## Round in circles (Sep 4, 2017)

Interesin ,  velly interestin .

 I have a 240 volt AC  running such motor , off one of the  vibrating fat away platforms . 

It's for a precision tool post grinder project. 
 I suspect it is one of the plug in & play 100 to 300 volt  range stepper motors that  are controlled to run at 90 volts DC , was wondering how many ohms the variable potentiometer  might be. What values  did you guys use please?


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## Z2V (Sep 8, 2017)

Takdashark

What hp treadmill motor are you using?  I have a 2hp and 3hp treadmill motor here but my Craftsman 07301 has a
1/4 hp motor. I'm hesitant to put a 2 hp in place of a 1/4 hp. Variable speed would be nice. I guess you can set belt tension very loose?


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## Kernbigo (Sep 8, 2017)

i ran a 1 1/2hp on my atlas 10" for 5years tell i sold it and it is still on there, what would be the problem


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## Z2V (Sep 8, 2017)

I'm new to this, I'm just asking. Just wondering if there is a point where too much motor is more bad than good.


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## Kernbigo (Sep 8, 2017)

why would even think that?


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## francist (Sep 8, 2017)

I tend to try to keep within the same approximate design sphere as the original configuration. I figure that for these old machines to survive this long they must be pretty well matched for motor and machine strength. Sure, in the event of a crash or similar event something has to give, but at the end of the day I'd rather have an intact machine than a big motor that won't stop.

-frank


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## Z2V (Sep 9, 2017)

Frank
That follows my line of thinking

Takdashark
Looks good, like how you put the fan on end of the motor.


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## wa5cab (Sep 9, 2017)

The situation is slightly different with a properly adjusted torque limiting motor controller.  It may save the machine.  But on the other hand, even with a properly matched and adjusted motor controller, there are two things working against you.  First, the larger the motor the more massive the armature.  And the more massive the armature the harder it is to stop.  Second, I seriously doubt that anyone here will have a motor controller designed like many bench-type regulated DC power supplies.  If you exceed the torque setting, the motor does not shut down (i.e., the supply probably will not go into fold-back).  Plus out of our roughly 20,000 members, I would guess that no more than two have the necessary equipment to safely confirm that the controller is properly adjusted.

The bottom line is that although there are many excuses for doing it, there is no valid excuse for putting an oversize motor on any machine.  The machine will not work any better with it.  It will cost more to run.  And if push ever does come to shove, you win the Darwin Award and will get no sympathy.


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