Foot controls

Unlikely. I believe those work with universal type motors, and most drill presses do not use that type of motor.

BBQ motors will be too slow. I built a SCUBA tank tumbler and you want the tank turning at around 25 RPM or so with a sand / water slury inside.

Yes, if your drillpress is powered by a sewing machine motor. I have one like that, a little Cameron MicroDrill.

No. Most of those foot controls are a variable resistor of some sort IRRC and will likely burn out in short order under the load of a big motor.

You need a simple pushbutton switch with something like a pedal to push down on that switch, and a stop so you dont mash the switch.

A hinge, a switch, some wire, a bit of sheetmetal...

Ebay has a number of them. You really should put a foot guard on it if you are making up one..an easy project.

I use these as I get them fairly regularly

Gunner

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Ooooo!!! You have a Cameron????? Way cool!

Neat little things.

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Sewing machine motors have brushes, all but the tiniest drill presses use induction motors. You can't control an induction motor's speed by controlling the voltage, all you can do is burn it out. Sewing machine speed controls are just resistors, which work with the AC/DC brush motors on the machines. These motors also draw a lot less current than a decent drill press' induction motor. You CAN control induction motor speed to a certain degree with solid state controls that control the frequency of the applied AC voltage, these cost a lot more than a variable resistance foot control, though. Search on "VFD" in the r.c.m. archives on google groups for more info on those. Best bet is to come up with a combination of pulleys and belts to get your speed reduction. You CAN make large slow-speed pulleys from plywood, it's been done with home-made cement mixers. Just don't underestimate loads when sizing the bearings.

Stan

It is! Model 164, still in production I think. Age indeterminate -- it belonged to a friend's dad who was an independent machinist in LA for many years, retired in the late '60's. It needs a new belt. Probably available from Cameron if I'd ever remember to call 'em and ask about it.

I use it for drilling circuitboards with small carbide bits.

When I was at Westec last month I chatted with the Cameron people, and they sent me a bunch of propaganda in the mail last week.

Ive got some "sensitive drill presses" but nothing that small

Gunner

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

No! Even

# # ### ## # #### ### # # # # # ### # # # # # # # # # # # # ## # # ### # # #### ###

if you can read it (proportional space fonts probably will render it difficult to read, fixed should be fine.

The motors on the Singer sewing machines (e.g. my 221 "Featherweight") are brush equipped universal motors, and will vary speed with applied current and with load to some extent. These motors will work with either DC or AC.

The foot speed controls are variable series resistance -- done by a stack of carbon blocks which get squshed together by the foot pressure to reduce their resistance and allow more current through to the motor.

And since there are three pins on the connector from the controller to the sewing machine, yet only two pins on the power cord (long before the common grounded outlets), I strongly suspect that the foot speed controller is varying the current only to one of two places which get power in a universal motor. Those two pieces are the rotor (through the brushes and commutator) and the field (stationary magnetic frame).

Hmm ... the power cord is on those three pins too, so it may be just to get power to the light on the sewing machine. Skip the idea of the split rotor and field windings.

Any reasonable sized drill press will have an induction motor -- no brushes, AC only, and their speed is mostly controlled by the power line frequency (within a narrow range, unless the drill press is large enough to have a three-phase motor which can be speed controlled by a VFD.) Your sewing machine foot speed control will at most change the torque load at which the motor stalls. And given the relaive size of the sewing machine motor and the drill press motor, it will quite likely burn up the foot speed controller fairly soon.

Now -- an exception to this is my little Cameron Precision sensitive drill press, with a fairly small universal motor. This would probably work with the foot speed control. But -- it works fine on a little speed control box designed for the Dremel tools from before they came with speed controllers built in. :-) This keeps me from being tempted to render my sewing machine useless.

Do the spit motors have brushes? I thought that they were AC-only motors, so I don't think that the sewing machine speed controllers would work with them either.

Again -- make sure that the spit motors are brush type if you want to control the speed.

Good Luck, DoN.

Yep. I have one which is one of the few power tools which I bought new. It was in the early 1970s, and it cost me $149.00 new. These days, they are frighteningly priced. :-) It was one which I could use in my single bedroom apartment. The floor-standing 16-speed came after I got married and moved into a house -- along with most of the other tools. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Also, IIRC, the belt for the Singer 221 "Featherweight" will work on it. I'm still on the first belt, but I got a spare when I got it -- just in case, and before I discovered that the 221 belt was the same size. :-)

That was my initial use for it. Lots of other tiny work, including making Ace style barrel keys to fit a rack-mount disk drive tray which had to have the drives locked in place to turn on the power, and obviously had to have them unlocked to change drives. :-) It was a fun job setting up to measure how deep each half-hole had to be in the OD of the barrel parallel to the centerline. :-)

Did you ever try using it with a HSS #70 bit in a G-10 board? By the time you had fifty holes drilled, the bit was worn to a needle point, and was burning its way through the boards. Look at the holes with a jeweler's loupe and you find that the holes are lined with glass fiber "fur". :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Unlike the typical induction motor found on a machine tool a shaded pole motor can be controlled for speed by varying the voltage. It will slip more with the same load applied and so slows down. But if the load is not constant the speed will not be constant. A fan will apply a constant load at a particular rpm. So the speed control will be good. If you set the speed on your weld positioner and then rub against the rotating parts it will slow down. Shaded pole motors are also not very efficient devices. One big advantage though is that they will not draw excessive current when stalled. Which means they will not smoke like your drill press motor would if it was stalled. ERS

All right! My wife has 3 featherweights, so I can check one for fit. If that works, "Dr. Willy" the sewing machine guy can certainly provide.

You might find this of interest, DoN:

That is a neat project. You tempt me to try to duplicate it. (But -- I would have to contour the bottom of the pedal so it would lock in the lid of the case as the original does. :-)

Thanks, DoN.

Let me know whether it does or not I never pulled the belt from the sewing machine to make sure, since I had a spare anyway.

Good Luck, DoN.

Just come by a cool Wa-Wa pedal in a yard sale. I have one in the shop my son left with me. Foot like a foot. Like on the woodies.

Someday it will be a TIG control - when it and the hand go out. Or it will become another variable control. I'd get a go-no-go type for on-off modes.

Martin

Mart> >> >>

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