Uses for a large electric motor?

NatoHub · Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:39 pm

Anyone have any cool ideas for what to do with a large industrial motor? There is a separate speed controller that allows the RPMs to be adjusted from 100 to about 700. And there is also a large inverter/power supply thing. Only the motor is pictured below.

I was thinking either a compressor, a fan, or some kind of shop tool (bench grinder, wood lathe, etc). But I want some other ideas.

BALDOR
Industrial Motor

DC, The inverter connects to a standard 120 volt wall socket.

Says:
R.P.M. : 1750 (but the speed controller only lets it go up to like 700)
Volts: 90
Amps: 10

Thanks

irisher · Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:01 pm

Off the top of my head; fan for forge, power source for car A/C compressor or slow lathe for o-ring grooves.

Technician1002 · Wed Apr 06, 2011 1:59 am

Looks about the right size for a drill press. No more stepped belts.

Check with the manufacture of the speed controller. Most have programmable ranges. Items such as accelleration, minimum, braking rate, maximum speed and such are often just software parameters. Many speed controllers will permit operating induction motors much faster than their nameplate speed at 50 or 60 cycles. Be carefull. Overspeed motors may explosively fail.

Here is a link to a trainer for teaching the basics of installation, use, and programming of the drives.

http://cnc-specialty-store.com/maint-tr ... e-tutorial

inonickname · Wed Apr 06, 2011 5:27 am

Dread mechanical cannon of course, gear it up and stick a big disk on it!

That's probably ~750-900 watts (750 joules per second) so with a large flywheel you could potentially make a semi auto firing a round at fairly high velocity with a roughly a kilojoule of energy about every 1.5 seconds.

mark.f · Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:45 am

Router table... for steel.

NatoHub · Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:31 am

Technician1002 wrote:Looks about the right size for a drill press. No more stepped belts.

Check with the manufacture of the speed controller. Most have programmable ranges. Items such as accelleration, minimum, braking rate, maximum speed and such are often just software parameters. [/url]

Unfortunately I don't think this speed controller is modern enough to do what you're talking about. I do work in a factory with a lot of huge grinders and other machining devices...and I have seen a lot of panels similar to the ones shown in your link. They often have usb ports or floppy/cd drives which I guess is how they can modify the parameters. But I think this motor is just a tad older than that technology (or the speed controller is at least).

Power Inverter/Speed Control

RPM Adjustment, meter reads from 0 to 600, the minimum speed is about 100 rpm

POLAND_SPUD · Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:40 am

hmmm if it is a DC motor then what's the problem ??

use PWM

who said you need an inverter ??

NatoHub · Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:11 am

Well I'm guessing that the box that plugs into the wall is some kind of inverter. But I honestly have no clue. I just figured that if it was a dc motor that plugs into the wall there would have to be some form of inverter.

POLAND_SPUD · Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:26 am

hmm AFAIK inverters are for converting DC into AC.

What you have is probably a rectifier (so converts AC to DC).

If it is a DC motor (you said it is) then you can control it with Pulse width modulation (PWM).

Google 'PWM and DC motor'

warhead052 · Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:38 am

Make a Pneumatic or combustion turret. Use that as like the rotating platform, and use a hinge to make a swivel to aim the gun up and down. Then add like a double barrel combustion or pneumatic, and start shooting down some birds or clays. Think about it, you would scare the **** outta some neighbors, and have a fun toy! I would buy it off you if I had the money....

Technician1002 · Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:49 am

A re-look at the photo of the motor shows that the motor is indeed a DC motor. The large screw cap on the side is the cap for the brushes.

I'm thinking 12 RC car batteries in series and you will have a a decent motor for an electric bike.

ramses · Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:37 pm

[quote="Technician1002"}
I'm thinking 12 RC car batteries in series and you will have a a decent motor for an electric bike.[/quote]

I was thinking the same thing, but with lead-acid batteries and a boost converter.

dewey-1 · Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:52 pm

NatoHub wrote:Well I'm guessing that the box that plugs into the wall is some kind of inverter. But I honestly have no clue. I just figured that if it was a dc motor that plugs into the wall there would have to be some form of inverter.

Post close up pictures of the nameplates/manufacturer of both the motor and the controller.
I am sure there is information available. You may be surprised at what other people may know about it.

Especially some of us "senior type citizens" who have seen these industrial items a few years back.

motorfixer1 · Thu Apr 07, 2011 5:43 am

I work in the electric motor industry and most of the time those motors are used on light industrial machinery. In recent years they have become obselete as the availability and price reduction of VFD's (Variable Frequency Drives) and Inverter duty AC motors have made DC motors a thing of the past. That is good news for folks like us that can fabricate and re-purpose things like this. That looks like a older rectifier/controller, more like a definate purpose controller because the maximum speed is about half of nameplate speed. You might be able to adjust the max setting of the controller which would make that setup good for a light duty drill press or hobby lathe drive motor.

Uses for a large electric motor?

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