What to do with a vaccum motor

[griff383]

The wife got a new vaccum for christmas which means I get the old one. I was thinking that the motor could be handy as a chamfer / deburring tool. I havent looked but pretty sure the motor is high rpm with some torque. I was thinking if I used a variable resistor to control the speed I could slow it down a bit for this. Anyone ever tried this or used a vaccum motor to help with any part of reloading?

 

[rcmodel]

If you can mount it to something, and slow it way down, and figure out some way to attach tools to the shaft, it might work.

But so would a cordless drill with no modification necessary.

rc

 

[Walkalong]

Tim the Toolman would be proud of you. More horsepower is always good, right?

 

[WNTFW]

Most vacuum motors have high rpm and rely on the air flow of the vac to cool it.

Finding a more suitable motor often makes a project easier than trying to adapt a poor choice. I have built a few things. Size of shaft, rpm/torque/power, mounting and voltage being convenient are on the short list of requirements. Duty cycle can be an issue. Price can be an issue. CW or CCW rotation can be another. Electrical safety should never be compromised.

I have used a cordless drill or borrowed a motor for proof of concept. Sometimes on things the torque or rpm required is less than expected.

 

[highorder]

If I had an extra motor, it would be mounted on a coal or charcoal forge! I'd be forging knives again, much to the neighbors dismay I'm sure.

 

[Greg Mercurio]

griff383: If you use a variable resisitor on an AC motor, you'll have a very interesting experiment. Please promise to use eye protection and have a CO2fire extinguisher handy. Make sure your homeowners insurance is paid up. If you want to do it right, you need an ac motor controller, Graingers has them for around $40.

Probably the best use of that motor would be to weigh down the garbage can in the yard. Next best would be to leave it inside the housing it came with and use the vacuum in the reloading room to keep it tidy. For what you put into the experient, you can buy lots of tools designed to do the job. Or a power screwdriver that is already geared for the speed you'd want for deburring.

Just my nickels worth of

"Please don't do anything you see here at home. We're what you call professionals." Jamie Heineman and Adam Savage-Mythbuster

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Griff383 Cleans Up With Hi-Speed Reloading Press!

 

[griff383]

Thanks for the information, I think its best suited as is and given to someone who needs one. The reason we replaced it is that the hose is bad so it doesnt work so well anymore.

 

[jmorris]

I used a power window motor to run one of my machines.

 

[Hey_Allen]

Highorder:
If you would actually have use of a vacuum motor for your forge, I have one that I salvaged from a neighbor's shop vac that they'd destroyed. If you want it, it's yours for the cost of shipping, and it looks like it'd fit in a USPS flat rate box.

Jmorris:
How did you couple your window motor to the end of that shaft?
That looks nearly identical to the window motors I've seen in my parted out Benz's doors.

On slowing motors down for this sort of work, Harbor Freight carries router speed control boxes designed to slow down AC motors, for about $20, but they also have various drill motors for sale much cheaper that are just begging to be modified into something useful...

 

[Owen]

i don't know man, vacuum motors suck.

 

[jmorris]

Jmorris:
How did you couple your window motor to the end of that shaft?

I machined the (rusty) thread adapter to match the trimmer threads and pressed it onto the geared output shaft.

 

[ranger335v]

If you have a functioning vac use it to keep your loading area clean.

A vac motor is too fast - and too loud - to adapt to trimming, etc.

 

[amlevin]

When I ask my wife "what should I do with this", often her answer is not printable on a forum.

 

[rfwobbly]

Your vacuum motor turns way too many RPM to do any of those jobs and AC motors are much harder to control. If used as a trimmer motor, the wind-down time would take longer than the cutting operation. If you lower the voltage you'll simply burn up the motor.

The reason JMORIS's idea works is that his motor is DC. If you want a DC motor to go slower you simply apply less voltage. If you want to reverse direction, you simply swap the wires. Plus his gearbox lowers the speed and adds the torque you'll be missing.

I highly suggest you leave it as a vacuum and adapt a smaller nozzle to clean off spilled powder and primers from around your press. That way you can burn the vacuum bag every New Year's Eve !!

 

[GW Staar]

Thereis another use for a vacuum in the reloading room besides general cleanup. I use mine with my powered Forster Trimmer.

You said your hose was...."hosed." You've just got to use the noggin and improvise. Use PVC pipe, some screws, and some sealer to convert what you got to generic hose from home depot.

On my trimmer I just used a small vacuum I had on hand, but a bigger one with more suction would be even better. I have a storage room next to my reloading room, so I chose to make it quieter in my reloading room by putting the vacuum in the storage room behind a closed door and I used PVC to go through the wall.

Following, are some pictures to explain what I did. The red switch shown (from radio shack) is a momentary switch that switches the trimmer motor and the vacuum together. When I collet a case (1/4 turn) I press the switch...a couple of seconds later the case is trimmed, chamfered, deburred, and auto-flipped into a bin upon release, ready for the progressive.

You were talking about using the vaccuum motor to chamfer & deburr....why not trim at the same moment? BTW, my trimmer motor is a high torque screw gun. My Forster Trimmer is using their new three-way cutters, that trim/deburr/chamfer.... Anyway...the pictures:

 

[jmorris]

The Dillon trimmer uses a large, high speed, AC motor but it would take a lot of machine work to get any motor to do the job.

On another note some AC motors cannot be controlled by light dimmers, router speed controls or even a variac. Your best bet is to have a brushed motor, if you are trying to control speed.