I pulled the motor out of my broken down front load washer. Here are the specs on it:
110v 50/60hz 16000 rpm
Any chance I can easily slow this down enough to work as a grain mill motor? If not, anyone have any fun uses for it?
sure, you should be able to with a pully and belt just figure out how many RPM you want and get the right ratio. 1600? 1:10 160? 1:100
16,000 rpm? Is that powered by jet fuel?
I am thinking that motor would make a great go cart! 200+ MPH
Ok, say I want to get it to about 300 rpm. I would go 1:50 to get 320 - right? Wouldn’t that turn out to be a huge pulley? The Part on the motor where the belt would attach is one inch diameter.
sure would, if your drive gear is 2 inches across your driven gear would have to be 100 inches across.
it’s probabaly also possible to control the speed of the motor given that the washer doesn’t always spin at full spin cycle speed. so you don’t have to use just gear ratio to do it but you will want to step the RPM down with gear ratios to increase your torque some so it will actually grind the grain without just binding up.
16000 rpm is fast enough that the spindle design and diameter of anything attached to it needs to be taken into consideration. I use something like this to bring rpms down to safer levels: http://www.amazon.com/MLCS-9400-Standard-Router-Control/dp/B001JHQ3G8
That thing is pretty cool. If I used something like that, couldn’t I ignore the pulley ratio and just use that controller to get the rpms I wanted?
only if the motor has enough torque.
How can I tell if there is enough torque?
My google-fu is not it tip top shape but I think you have all the info you need to figure that out. It’s the power of the motor (here noted in the Volts and frequency you mentioned) multiplied by the RPM but I am not sure what the equivalency is between 200v @ 60 hz and say a 5 horse power motor.
I am 100% certain however that there is someone on this forum that can answer you more exactly.
*EDIT TO ADD
Here is an about.com article. to thick for me right now.
Where’s Carl? I’m certain he has a great definition of torque
Thanks for the link. I wasn’t even sure where to start figuring out torque.
So to figure out torque, I first need to know horsepower, and to figure out the horsepower I need to figure out the amps that it draws. Any help on how to figure these things out? Underneath the information about volts, hz and rpm there is a line on the label that says this:
1.44.A
but I don’t think that is referring to amps.
that might be it.
The thing about using an inexpensive voltage reducer is that house voltage is not always consistent. It’s not gonna be great for fine-tuning on the low end, but you could cut the rpms by 1/3 to 1/4 and try it from there. The main concern is to have lower speeds for safety.
Torque-wise, it kinda depends on your setup and how much continuous grain is being fed through. The crusher I’m using is built with skateboard bearings and a light feed and so it’s not much of a concern. Personally, I’d go with a cheap drill. It’d take the fun out of the project but would be easier to design and adjust.
Cheers.
16000 is way to fast to reduce with sheaves. I have an 8" x 1.5" reduction on a 1725 rpm saw motor that gives me 320 rpm on the mill.
Find another motor.
A 16,000 rpm motor sounds like a good way to burn through 4 tons of grain in a minute…
I agree with realbeerguy, will probably be better to just get a proper motor.
Man, you guys ruined a fun project 
I guess I figured as much when I saw the motor, but I was just hoping.
So, any good uses for it?
Just thinking it through - how about a worm gear, say http://www.lexarindustrial.com/servlet/the-11007/NRV063-Worm-Gear-100-cln-1/Detail, or building it out component by component. This product line is available from many vendors: http://www.bostongear.com/products/open/worms.html
Cheers.