When buying a donor treadmill, you don't always know what's inside it. . . So in the end I ended up with a destroyed treadmill to dispose of, fifty dollars less in my pocket, and 6 hours of wasted time. In the future, I will pay more money for parts I know are useable.
In the future, watch the free section of Craigslist and be patient, and keep your wallet in your pocket.
I've got the motor from a free one sitting on a shelf, another in shop ready to take apart, and two have popped up since I dragged that one home. There is currently one available about an hour from me that I refuse to look at anymore, because I might go get it.
That said, you're $50 doesn't have to be completely lost:
-Save the walking board, and put it down in front of your mill or lathe with the plastic sheath on it. It makes for a nicely padded place to stand, and swarf sweeps off the plastic easily. I expect it to get ratty in a few months. I'll rip the plastic off, use the MDF for trial cuts, and replace it with another freebie.
-Those two rollers at the ends of the tread are nice for making a work support system for cutting long boards. There is plenty of square tube in the treadmill for making the support frame.
-The lift motor (if the treadmill has it) is bi-directional and slow. It would make a nice power feed for a mill table or lathe.
-Did it have a power lift spring for the walking surface to flip up. Those can be quite useful in a number of projects.
-I keep all nuts and bolt that aren't mangled, and those treadmills are full of 'em. Good quality, too.
-That walking tread is some really tough material. Nice for anything you want to protect from swarf. Cut it and roll it up. Keep it on a shelf.
Even the motor: It's open, but a little sheet metal can fix that. That treadmill should have some. I just left mine open. If swarf destroys it, I'll be willing to pay double for its replacement. I turned down the pulley it had, and fitted the pully stack that came with my RF-30 mill onto the stub. I use the smallest one of the stack. And have a low-medium-high selection using the intermediate-to-spindle pulley setup. It shouldn't be hard to make an aluminum adapter.
