Rikon mini lathe upgrade

[Bob Henry]

Has anyone modified a Rikon mini lathe to make it variable speed? Thanks for any help.
Bob

[Jeff Nicol]

Bob, I have done it to a larger lathe that had a reeves type drive on it to a full variable speed drive. I did it with a VFD (Variable frequency drive) and a 1hp 3 phase motor. The motor is larger than what is on the rikon so mounting would be different. Another way to do it is to get an old treadmill and take the motor out of it and use the control board and speed control to change your mini over to VS. Surplus center sells the same motors and controls to do this also. These motors ar DC and are very strong and torquey at low rpms. Most of the tread mills have 2-3 hp DC motors on them. I was looking at one at a thrift store here for $100 that had everything but when I decided to go get it, it was gone.

Do some searching on the web for this type of conversion and you will find lots of info. A lot of home machinists convert their lathes over to this configuration to get more power.

Hope this gives you some Ideas!

Jeff

[David Christopher]

I have a brand new DC motor at home it has a forward and reverse switch and speed control knob allready on it I dont remember if it is a 3/4 or 1 horse power. I can give you more details and pictures when I get home from work if you want