is a washing machine motor?
I was thinking because instead of swapping my DW router in and out of the table to put a permanent motor in the table. This would take some thinking,but if a WM motor can take the punishement of spinning a large drum its accuracy regards side play of the rotor shaft has got to be zero tolerance?
============================= Regardless of any other considerations it might not be worth the effort because you probably couldn't get the required RPM - typically 6000 - 30000 rpm.
Have a look at the motors in Machine Mart for some idea of the possible (low) speeds. My washing machine has a maximum spin speed of about 1100 rpm so you wouldn't be able to get much more than this with gearing.
You would be better off using your pillar drill for the long, less detailed stuff and use your router table for finer work.
If you're interested, Machine Mart have introduced an affordable DIY spindle moulder which is effectively a dedicated router / router table. See:
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Well thats that up the swanny...almost Looking at their single phase motors looks promising and not to bad a price for a 1.5HP motor.
============================= That's quite a powerful motor. Typically you would find a 1/4 or 1/3 HP for such uses. My pillar drill has a 1/3 HP motor and it's been used for years (light use) as an overhead router without mishap.
Cic.
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!!
But your washing machine drum is belt driven, with a pulley diameter ratio of at least 20:1.
(I still don't like the idea of using a washing machine motor for this, but for other reasons.)
It would be more than enough power for a router. WM motors typically do upto around 15,000 rpm, which is right on the button for a small router, but not a larger one. The real problem is safety, I wouldnt really recommend it.
NT
Whats the drawbacks?
Obviously it'll need a sturdy base(possibly bigger base and support) and a variable speed controller.
====================== I didn't realise that current washing machine motors gave such high rpm. The last one I repaired was a single tub top entry type and I don't think that gave such high rpm. I've got a spin drier motor lying around from about the same time and that certainly gave much higher rpm than the washer motor.
What are the safety issues - assuming that you can mount the motor solidly?
Cic.
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How will you mount a collet perfectly concentricaly on the shaft of a washing machine motor?
Drill a 1/2" hole down the shaft,providing the shaft can accept an 1/2" bore and at the same time accept a thread cutting on the outside?
There's a whole big pile of them.
Mounting a collet on the spindle will be tricky. Mounting the motor to the table won't be too easy. Being able to adjust the cutter height. Speed control - washing machine motors are strange beasts with several windings.
It goes on and on.
Just buy a decent router.
How will you center that hole?
====================== If you want to explore the idea further consider a belt drive using something like a 'Picador spindle'.
Cic.
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If you look at most drive shafts they have a conical recess this recess is there when its turned on the Lathe,this will make it easy to center the drill bit. However not all shafts are like this.
While I'm aware of the dimple you mean, I don't fancy your chances. The only way you'd be able to get a centered, parallel hole would be to strip the motor (not too difficult) and stick the armature in a lathe.
All in all way too much hassle. You could get this to work if we lived in a post-apocalyptic world where you couldn't buy a router, but as things currently stand, it's barely worth contemplating.
But this is DIY is it not?
And you can get the motor off any scrap WM it'll cost you nothing providing the tools are at hand.
I know someone with a small lathe so thats a bonus for me. :-) however if that wasnt available I would try to drill the shaft.
The ones I've seen have mostly had spindles of around half inch diameter. Maybe you have something wider already.
Theres a site that shows exactly how to make one of these, plus various other power tools, but I cant find the addy for it.
Safety issues: there are various issues crop up with home made power tools. They can break under load, throwing very fast moving chunks of metal, it only takes one joint of less than ideal strength for this to happen. They can lack the level of safety guards that new tools have They may lack switch interlock They can lack additional features standard on new tools such as riving knife etc They can have non ideally matched cutting tool and rpm, leading to slow progress leading to a strong temptation to push it too hard to get the job done. And of course they can have more basic poor wiring and unprotected moving part issues.
For a table router that does anything from 6000 to 15000 rpm I'd be primarily concerned about security and stability of fixing of the bit to the shaft. It will have to stay accurately centred despite sideways force, very high rotational speeds and constant vibration, so the fixing strength and accuracy must be excellent.
NT
I'm all for DIY, but I've done enough of it to be able to differentiate between projects that will be rewarding and produce a satisfactory result, and ones that won't.
Make sure you get the speed controller too. You will need that as a starting point when building yours.
That's good. I think if you drilled the hole using a drill press the thing would fly apart at around 2000rpm.
Who cares? Washing machine motors are weird little buggers and effectively off-limits to practical DIY. Because they're multi-speed, reversible and all the rest of it, they need complex drive electronics. Because they're already in a washing machine housing they ignore a casing of their own so as to improve cooling airflow.
Although a dedicated DIYer _could_ re-use a modern washing machine motor, there's just no good reason to. Many other motors are more useful and a whole lot less trouble to recycle.
The armature is already in a lathe, no stripping needed. Just apply some volts to the motor and the lathe is powered.
NT
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