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Variable speed conversion

pinkpanda3310

Plastic
Joined
Nov 18, 2017
Hi I'm new here and still learning lots about metal work, lathes in particular are my interest. I know some of you may not approve of my choice of lathes but anyway...

I am in the middle of a slight upsize from a sieg sc3 (7"x16") to a hafco al-250g (10"x20"). I would have kept the sc3 if I could get a quick change gearbox for feed/threading. I really liked the variable speed on it.

Now the hafco has a fixed speed motor with geared head for spindle speeds and quick change gearbox for feed/threading. For the most part this sounds fine but after having a variable speed I think I'll miss it. In particular changing speed on the fly or reversing quickly for another cut.

I've been looking at the options I could do and it seems like a mine field. You'll have to excuse my use of ebay it just seemed easy at the time.

Option 1 - AC 22V 4W Variable Voltage Controller For Light Fan Speed Motor Dimmer | eBay
Seems extremely unreliable and not recommended.

Option 2 - Treadmill Motor DC | eBay
I gave my brother a treadmill with working controller a while back. I assume he still has it. I don't think I could use the controller and haven't looked at what would be suitable. Possibly cheap

Option 3 - 48V 18W DC Electric Bike Motor Scooter Speed Controller w/Throttle Twist Grips | eBay
A scooter motor conversion. I reckon I could make this work with a controller with an astern button. The downside is I would need a lot of DC power, one or maybe even 2 of these 1000w psu which makes it a bit pricey for what it is. AC 1-24V To DC 12/24/36/48V 1W Switching Power Supply Driver For LED Light | eBay

Option 4 - 1.5KW 3PH 22V Single Phase Variable Frequency Drive Inverter VSD VFD AUS PWM | eBay
and
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/single-...316335?hash=item2a56f1d76f:g:9jcAAOSwVL1V-4hJ
This seems very doable (for me) and somewhat cheap. I would just need to check if the motor will fit in the space available.

Option 5 - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CNC-3ph...576070?hash=item33da58aac6:g:6NoAAOSwk-1Z~iZl
and
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Stepper...101417&hash=item3d300ebe8d:g:VSgAAOSwtpZYR9og
and
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nema-42-...663641&hash=item283ffe924c:g:AAAAAOSwQm9ZwLvQ
I'm not sure how suitable this is for my situation but I've read somewhere that steppers had been used as spindle motors.

Now if/when I get around to changing to variable speed I'm inclined to go with the VFD solution but I'm not that experienced so I'd like to hear your opinion :o
 








 
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