Weelchair motors, switches & other components for homemade mills

[woodbowl]

I just missed a free Hover Round chair in the paper to rob parts from.   :-\  There seems to be a lot of good stuff on these chairs for us pack rats and do it your selfers. I've searched ebay and found some gearmotors fairly reasonable, but it would be nice to have a personal scrapyard of local discarted chairs and such to choose from.

I'm asking for new and old ideas alike, using these and other components, in configuring the unlimited arrangements for homemade sawmills and other projects.

What all can we do with this perfectly good junk merchandise?

[submarinesailor]

Other good source for variable speed motors are variable speed tread mills.  My SIL used one to make a variable speed belts sander.

Bruce

[StorminN]

woodbowl,

You should check with your local hospice, nursing home, etc... I happened upon a contact with my local hospice through the local freecycle email list... and as it turns out, the hospice guy was receiving a steady stream of broken / old dead batteries / unused electric wheelchairs and scooters. I got a couple of broken chairs from him and a couple of 24V chargers. All the motors are 24VDC. I ended up using one motor as the lift motor for my Mobile Dimension mill, and two others to run the conveyor belts for my sawdust conveyors.

These gear motors are pretty strong, they could have lots of uses... gate openers, small lifts, they would probably also work for travel motors for band mills. I've noticed that some of the wheelchairs use motors that have metric sized shafts, which makes it harder to buy sprockets. You could machine the sprocket or the shaft, but I've had enough supply that I could ignore these motors and just used the SAE sized ones, so I can buy $4 chain sprockets from Surplus Center.

-N.

[mburrow]

I am thinking of trying to use a power seat motor out of a car to power my guide

[uncle john]

If  you like, odd, random, old, old military parts, electrical motors and gizmos of all kinds,  etc., of the electrical persuasion check this link out.

http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm/subsection/18/category/170

The place is called "American Science and Surplus Center....This place has all kinds of stuff - from old WWII tank parts to - office supplies

[Slabs]

Hang in there Olen.  One of these days you'll be a packrat/klugemeister like me.  Then you'll have to have an elevated walk to get into and out of your shop/storage facility.

[rbarshaw]

 
I used bicycle parts and a windshield wiper motor for this rig that would raise and lower the headrig on my last bandmill. Had to lift the lead inside the motor that was connected to the case so I could make it reversable.

[james]

another idea is to try and get  an old broke down double or triple loader washing machine from a laundry mat the wheels that drive the drums look to be about 24" the local one just gave me 2 of them to haul off  warning they aint light
james