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    Default Washing machine & wiper motors

    Who knows how to adapt washing machine motors and wiper motors to other use. I need a motor for my little Unimat 3 lathe. The lathe is only 300mm long and weights 7kg, almost fits in a briefcase, so the motor mustn't be too bulky. I had a nice motor but it got damaged.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Washing machine & wiper motors

    Search Youtube with terms like "repurposing washing machine motors" or "recycling wiper motors". You will get plenty of hits

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    Default Re: Washing machine & wiper motors

    For that size and staying with 220vAC i would rather look at a sewing machine motor. The older type that is external. washing machine motor will be too big.

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    Member Andrew Leigh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Washing machine & wiper motors

    Dick, is see it is 95/65W at 5000/3000rpm. Dual speed motors off the shelf could be difficult. You may have to select one of the two range and work around that. There are spare motors on EBay.

    Contact Bircraft for small fractional kW motors.
    One too many wasted sunsets and one too many for the road .........

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dick View Post
    Who knows how to adapt washing machine motors and wiper motors to other use. I need a motor for my little Unimat 3 lathe. The lathe is only 300mm long and weights 7kg, almost fits in a briefcase, so the motor mustn't be too bulky. I had a nice motor but it got damaged.
    Can't the old motor be repaired or is it beyond repair?

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    Default Re: Washing machine & wiper motors

    Electric gate motor?

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    Default Re: Washing machine & wiper motors

    A lot of small lathes have been modified to run off treadmill motors - small, good torque and variable speed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BBCT View Post
    Electric gate motor?
    I think a gate motor will not be able to run for long times, duty cycle is too low.

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    Default Re: Washing machine & wiper motors

    Quote Originally Posted by Vaal View Post
    I think a gate motor will not be able to run for long times, duty cycle is too low.
    Good thinking, I agree with you.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Washing machine & wiper motors

    Thanks, guys, much appreciated. As Andrew said, the factory motor is a 95/65W 5000/3000 rpm brush motor. Yes I could repair it - it just needs new brushes but they are not easy to find. There are two problems with it. Last time I fitted new brushes I had to adapt brushes from an electric drill. Worked perfectly but they are a bitch to fit. The other issue is running time. The book says it is rated at 80%, meaning 8 minutes running two minutes rest, to prevent overheating, but it is actually 50/50 in the SA climate. With a machine as small as this, very fine cuts are the order of the day so machining time can be quite long, and the last thing you need is fifteen minutes work followed by fifteen minutes downtime for the motor to cool.

    A few years back a buddy found me a beautiful little 175W induction motor. Speed was 1440 rpm which would have been perfect with the existing pulleys. I made a lot of firing pins most of which have a portion of their length 2mm diameter. 1500 rpm is fast enough for that, and can't think of anything that would need the Unimat's max speed of 4000 rpm. The lowest factory speed is 130 rpm when even the tiny Unimat needs less than 100 rpm for 50mm diameter discs for example. That 1440 rpm motor would therefore have been perfect. Unfortunately, when I moved house (before I fitted it to the lathe) while I was carrying it across my garage in a checkers bag it fell through the bag and the impact on the floor was enough to bend the spindle.

    That's the background. I checked out internet/youtube, as I often do when researching. I saw a lot of good instructional material about motors but not much that was helpful, except that it showed sewing machine motors to be a logical choice, but I'll get to that later.

    Washing machine motors are too bulky as Davidc said. Treadmill motors are way too powerful for a minaiture lathe. 100W is about right but up to 200W might be OK.


    Sewing machine motors seem to be ideal as Davidc suggested. 6000 rpm is of course the opposite to what I need - could be taken care of with pulleys but the pulleys would be disproportionately big for the machine. However, the motors work with speed control so a combination of pulleys and speed control should be OK. I never used the higher speed of the factory motor because it was way faster than necessary.

    The catch now is where to get one. Those available in SA are Alphasew but reports on the net suggest that VGK and Kenmore are better quality. No indication of where they could be bought. I can't go looking in the lockdown anyway, but when I can I'll ask the sewing shops around Somerset West and take it from there.

    I've posted about miniature lathes before. The Unimat 3 is excellent but there are others that might be better. For example the Proxxon of similar size cuts threads via gearing which the Unimat does not. An amazing variety of work can be done with miniature lathes - pins, firing pins, screws, in fact anything that a bigger lathe will do, but scaled down. They are portable and can be packed away after use. However, they are not cheap, and better value might be found in the 7"x14" mini lathes marketed by many suppliers but all made in China/Taiwan. Quality varies, but those from reputable suppliers are quite good, and in the US there are entire chat groups given to improving/modifying them. Although they are small as lathes go, they are much more robust than miniature lathes and are a good choice for a gunsmith operating on a small start up budget.

    Another small but very useful tip that I might have mentioned before. If you buy a lathe, absolutely DO buy a four jaw chuck and a dial test indicator. If necessary don't bother with three jaw, although most lathes are supplied with them. Without a four jaw you are fighting with one hand. It makes possible a variety of work and a degree of precision that can be achieved in no other way. The dial test indicator should be seen as the other half of a two piece precision tool, as it used for setting round work to centre with an accuracy that no three jaw chuck will do.

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