Ryobi SC-160 Scroll Saw Speed Control?

Jun 11, 2007 1 Replies

I have a single-speed SC-160 16" Ryobi scroll saw. The motor has only a little information on its label as follows: H/P: 1/10 Phase: 1 R.P.M: 1725 Amps: 1.6 Volts: 115 Hz: 60 Insulation Class: A MFG:1991



I would like to add a speed control to it. So far my experiments with



2 different types of speed controls has produced the following:
1) Control from a lapidary machine: scroll saw runs at about 15 RPM regardless of the setting on the speed control.
2) Solid-state light dimmer: Saw does nothing until the dimmer is set to about half of the control's rotation range. Then it runs at full speed after reaching midpoint.

Is there a speed controller available that will give me an infinite speed range for this saw? I would like to cut metal with it.



Gary



Hi Gary,

Can you tell if the motor has brushes or not? If it uses brushes it could be a universal motor and then the cheapo Router Speed control from Harbor Freight may work. See:

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It is on sale quite often, like right now for instance for $9.99.

I've used this control on my single speed Right-angle drill, cheapo China table saw, Milwaukee 4 inch right angle grinder... pretty much any tool with a universal motor.

If the motor doesn't have/use brushes though I think you will be out of luck, other than swapping out the motor to one that can be controlled...

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