Treadmill Motor QUESTION???

I wouldn’t. The controller from the treadmill will most likely be a PWM motor controller which should give you a lot more low end torque than the resistor speed controller.

-- Woodworking shouldn't cost a fortune: http://lowbudgetwoodworker.blogspot.com/

I agree with David Kirtley. Use the treadmill speed controller.
I got a treadmill incline motor ($5)from a repair contractor for Costco, he gave me a treadmill belt board which I am going to make a router table out of. It is black and slick both sides, I will use the un-worn side.
Treadmills can be had for free on Craigslist, you get the controller and the motor for the cost of hauling and stripping the hardware, the dump fee for the rest is your only real cost.

-- Love thy neighbour as thyself

If that DC motor isn’t series wound, a small rheostat in the field will control it.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Here is a great link for converting lathes for variable speed using a treadmill motor.
http://bedair.org/9x20camlock/9x20project.html
This is a metal lathe conversion but it would be the same application.

-- www.thepatriotwoodworker.com Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops

Thanks for the comments. I guess I’ll try the Treadmill Board but it’s bigger than I wanted to use.

Topamax: I’m not sure if the DC motor is series wound or not? I’m no electrical whiz.. that’s for darn sure. I know how to plug stuff in..LOL that’s about the extent of it. This will be a learning experience for sure..
Old DOG new trick??? hmmm

This is impossible to say without knowing exactly what motor you have. So all my statements are general and subject to exactly what motor you have.

In general, the DC motors for treadmills that I have run into are permanent magnet DC motors. The application is just not well-suited to universal motors. The router speed control from HF that you reference is not suited to DC motor control. It actually provides chopped AC voltage to a universal motor.

Even if you have a universal motor, you probably do not want to run the simple HF router speed control on it. You will get from 2X to 4X the low speed torque with a PWM DC speed control than you will with a chopped AC speed control on the same universal motor.

Now, PWM DC variable speed controllers are more complicated than simple chopped AC speed controllers and that probably explains the differences in size between the two controllers you mentioned.

Topamax’s statement is void. You probably either have a universal motor, which are always series wound or they wouldn’t run on AC/DC, or a permanent magnet motor, in which case there is no field coil – the magnets provide the magnetic field – and you cannot vary field strength with a rheostat.

-- "Find out what you cannot do and then go do it!"

If that is a permanent magnet or series motor, I am definitely voided out;-)) You need 2 big wires and 2 little wire sticking out of the motor to do what I suggested.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

David the HF control states it is 15 amp max, I have never seen a 2-1/2 hp motor that would be that low on
amps, most one horse pull from 9 to 15 amps depending on who is rating and how they are rated.

-- As ever, Gus-the 74 yr young apprentice carpenter