cheap speed control for treadmill motor

[jmiller_2308]

I'm trying to use an old treadmill motor to drive a apple crusher but I'm cheap!

It would be nice if I had the controller from the treadmill machine but I do not and replacements look like they will be $100 and up. So being cheap I tried to use a $25 AC to DC speed control off Amazon but it was rated for only 400 watts and the motor wants 1300 watts for continuous duty. Yup.... fried the controller when I cranked up the speed.

Doing a google search led me to believe that it is possible to buy/build a reliable speed control for a treadmill in the $20 range but the opinions vary and I'm a bit out of my element with regard to what makes sense.

Can people post what solutions they have used, especially if it is a plug and play.

Thanks

 

[WhoWhatNow]

Get a complete treadmill and take the board and motor from it. People will frequently give them away when they are moving because they are a pia to move. Even if you have to pay $50 for one you will be ahead in terms of time.

 

[jmiller_2308]

Get a complete treadmill and take the board and motor from it. People will frequently give them away when they are moving because they are a pia to move. Even if you have to pay $50 for one you will be ahead in terms of time.

It was a major pain in the **** when I got rid of the treadmill that donated the motor I'm using and it also cost to get it recycled. Given the PIA of finding, picking it up, tearing apart, and then disposing of the leftovers acquiring yet another worthless treadmill for a questionable controller isn't worth it even to somebody as cheap as me

 

[Mandres]

There are a few good ways to do it. The best source of info I've found is a YouTube channel called "DazeCars". He's gone through every available option from the cheap SCR controller+ bridge rectifier to a Variac transformer.

Im personally running my belt grinder off a scrapped treadmill motor using an scr controller + rectifier modded up in an old pc power supply case. I had to modify the controller with a different potentiameter to get finer control. It was a while ago and I don't remember the details. Check out the channel though, all the info is there. I'd be surprised if nobody is offering an easy off the shelf solution by now. AliExpress might be a place to look.

 

[jmiller_2308]

Thanks @Mandres I'll check out the videos.

I did find a $20 controller on Amazon that I thought was too good to be true. Unfortunately, the thing ran my motor for less than 30 seconds before it crapped out. I just looked on Amazon now and see the same thing now selling for $16 but when I search the internet for that model I see it being sold for more than $100.

I suspect the Amazon stuff is junk that was returned or is known to be junk and they are just dumping it on unsuspecting buyers.

 

[Jack_K]

If you don't need to vary the speed and can run it at full speed, you could just use a rectifier and capacitors on the mains voltage.

I just resort to finding the right treadmills with controllers which can be used without the big control panel. I get the treadmills for free and then take the frame as scrap metal. The rest can easily be disposed of for free. Unfortunately most of the controllers aren't usable without the treadmill control panel. It's usually the cheaper treadmills which can be.