Treadmill Motor Cooling

[DICKEYBIRD]

I was reading the post on here about eBay TM motors and thought maybe someone could use the method I came up with to cool them. I removed the flywheel/fan from mine and immediately found that airflow is needed.

I made a wood plug that duplicated the shape of the fan housing and the motor O.D. I turned the round end in the lathe, shaped the transition from round to square with the mill, a plane and coarse sandpaper. I then glued on a pair of blocks to make bumps to clear the brush boxes and then shrunk a 2 liter soda bottle tightly around it. I slit it down one side to remove it from the plug and then installed it with a tyrap, a piece of aluminum 200 mph tape and a strip of filament tape.

The soda bottle (P.E.T. plastic, polyethylene terephthalate) shrinks about 25-30% at approx. 400 deg f. and is amazingly tough stuff after shrinking.

The 1st fan I tried was from an old PC power supply but it didn't flow enough air so I bought a 12v 80 mm sq., 80 cfm server fan off eBay for $9.00. It does a great job but is a tad noisy. The fan is mounted to one of the motor studs via a cobbled up aluminum bracket. I mounted it so that it draws air from t'other end and blows the ozone rich air away from the motor guts. The insulation ought'a last longer that way.

I added a small switch and chose to turn it on & off manually so I can leave it running a few minutes after use to cool the motor all the way down.

Hope this helps someone.

edit: Sorry, I just noticed the last pic shows the 1st fan and that it's set to blow air the wrong way. That was before someone on another forum mentioned the ozone thing.

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[gd.marsh]

Very interesting concept!

I've melted my share of soda bottles but never even considered how the shrinking capabilities might come in handy ..

Also, your 4th axis looks quite interesting .. is the spindle body made from a piece of square steel tube?

[DICKEYBIRD]

Thanks gd.

The ER-32 spindle body is indeed made from a piece of 3" square tube. It's actually used as a lathe. The little CNC Denford MicroMill (Sherline) has a homemade tool post mounted on the left end of the table and is used for X/Z lathe movements. It works OK but is very limited in travel.

It was supposed to be a "quick" experiment to get CNC lathe capabilities for small parts. The quick part was WAY the heck wrong.

[Hans_G]

The quick part was WAY the heck wrong.

Boy, I know that feeling!

Did you remove the fan to gain clearance for the y axis motor? If not, what was the reason? Just curious. I want to add an encoder to mine, but I'm thinking it might not fit and even if it does, it could end up blocking air flow.

I saw another post where a guy added many pieces aluminum U channel to the motor body to act as a heatsink after removing the fan.

[DICKEYBIRD]

The fan was part of the big, heavy flywheel which isn't needed on a spindle motor and yes, space was at a premium on this project.

I put one of Arturo's CNC4PC inexpensive spindle sensor/circuits on the spindle itself and it works great! Very accurate speed readout in Mach 3.

[hoss2006]

Great idea dickey!
Thanks for sharing.
Hoss

[DICKEYBIRD]

Oh, my goodness; Master Hoss finds favor with in my piddlin's. I've finally made the big time!



Milton

[hoss2006]

Milton,
Never noticed that 2l bottles were PETE. With all the pop I drink I'll start saving some
empties for future projects.
Thanks, Hoss

[Fastest1]

Oh, my goodness; Master Hoss finds favor with in my piddlin's. I've finally made the big time!



Milton

You might even see that he might need cooling for the stepper on his tool changer rack!

[DICKEYBIRD]

I find that club soda or tonic water bottles have superior properties for heat shrink projects. Believe me, I've run extensive tests to prove it.

Of course, one can't waste the contents. That'd be so wrong!

[fragger6662000]

could you not of bought an impeller from a model plane?

[DICKEYBIRD]

could you not of bought an impeller from a model plane?

I suppose so but I don't think one would flow enough air at low motor speeds. Some of the work I do on the lathe requires fairly low speeds. Also after a long run it's nice to leave it running for a while after the motor is turned off.

[almachee]

I was reading the post on here about eBay TM motors and thought maybe someone could use the method I came up with to cool them. I removed the flywheel/fan from mine and immediately found that airflow is needed.

I made a wood plug that duplicated the shape of the fan housing and the motor O.D. I turned the round end in the lathe, shaped the transition from round to square with the mill, a plane and coarse sandpaper. I then glued on a pair of blocks to make bumps to clear the brush boxes and then shrunk a 2 liter soda bottle tightly around it. I slit it down one side to remove it from the plug and then installed it with a tyrap, a piece of aluminum 200 mph tape and a strip of filament tape.

The soda bottle (P.E.T. plastic, polyethylene terephthalate) shrinks about 25-30% at approx. 400 deg f. and is amazingly tough stuff after shrinking.

The 1st fan I tried was from an old PC power supply but it didn't flow enough air so I bought a 12v 80 mm sq., 80 cfm server fan off eBay for $9.00. It does a great job but is a tad noisy. The fan is mounted to one of the motor studs via a cobbled up aluminum bracket. I mounted it so that it draws air from t'other end and blows the ozone rich air away from the motor guts. The insulation ought'a last longer that way.

I added a small switch and chose to turn it on & off manually so I can leave it running a few minutes after use to cool the motor all the way down.

Hope this helps someone.

edit: Sorry, I just noticed the last pic shows the 1st fan and that it's set to blow air the wrong way. That was before someone on another forum mentioned the ozone thing.

You can get new fans here
http://www.partsfortreadmill.com/parts-for-treadmill/treadmill-motor-replacement/motor-fan-for-treadmill-motor.html

and you can check here for treadmill help in general
http://www.treadmillsrepair.co.uk/
http://www.partsfortreadmill.com/repair/repair.htm

[GreatNorthGnome]

I used this duct idea (thanks by the way) Then machined a prop, it moves alot of air.

[DICKEYBIRD]

Wow, that's some cool machining work right there! I'll bet that puppy sings a tune at full 5 - 6K rpm treadmill motor speed.

[GreatNorthGnome]

Yeah it was a fun part to do Surprisingly quiet though.

[TroyO]

I used one of these on my lathe, it worked pretty well. It's an inline 4" duct booster fan... it happened to fit close enough and is just aluminum taped on to the motor.


Cisno 4" Inch Duct Fan Exhaust Vent Air Cooling Hydroponic Inline Blower 100 CFM - - Amazon.com

[123CNC]

TroyO,

Like your byline and can relate, although in this post your fan solution appears overly simple and too cheap. Would that make it a project failure or success??

[DICKEYBIRD]

TroyO,

...your fan solution appears overly simple and too cheap. Would that make it a project failure or success??

Definitely a failure. Too much mouse clicking & not enough manly use of tools! (Just kidding, that's a great find. Yet another device that I didn't have a clue existed.)

[Zenji]

Thanks for reminding me to do this, converted my old conehead lathe to treadmill but still have not done the cooling yet. (even though i still run it!!!)