OT Speed Controller for Electric Motor
Turbo Mini Forums

I've got a 5amp Clark Motor fitted to my lathe and it work fine for most turning jobs, however I'm looking to throttle the speed right back for cutting threads to prevent damage to my taps & dies, currently I turn the chuck round by hand which is a real pain. Can anyone offer any advise on an electric speed controller? I looked in the RS catalog and there were literally thousands to choose from with descriptions which meant nothing. I also looked on ebay and came across these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fan-speed-controller...id=p3286.c0.m14

What do you reckon, for the price you can't really go wrong, can you?

Rob the way I got around this was to turn another set of pulles that could fit to the orignal ones this allowed me to get my lathe turning at between 50rpm and 4000rpm which was spot on for me, I tryed one of those speed controlers an uncal fitted it for me as he is one of these eletric fitters but when I slowed the lathe with it it had no power you could stop the chuk with your hands and this was on an American tool 25hp motor lathe,
regards,
PH

Like paul says if you just get a speed controller, that is all it will do. If you have a 3ph motor and get a drive on it then you will be able to get full torque at zero speed, but that is not possible with a single phase motor (I don't think so anyway). Doing it through a gear box or pulleys will be simpler.

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