Hello ,
Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
Could you tell me what you feel is a good R.P.M. speed for a power wrapper or what the usual R.P.M.'s for a power wrapper are. Also, is a variable speed foot pedal required ?
Thank you.
Rick

Not sure what rmps most people use. But I have PacBay brand with variable speed control built on it

. What I suggest doing is to use it slow and as you get more proficient with it adjust it up a little at a time and after each speed increase when you gotten comfortable with it increase again until you find the best working speed for you

Variable speed will allow you to use faster speeds on simple wraps and slow speed on more difficult wraps.

While variable speed is not a requirement it is a good idea.

I use a foot pedal with a delicate toe. Thats only what works for me however.

What do you guys mean by variable speed, are you talking about single speed motor connected to a foot pedal or the motor itself has more than one speed and you have some sort of toggle switch and still use the foot pedal?

Rick, in any case, I sent you an email.

variable speed-

my AMTAK wrapper has dual controls the foot controller - farther down you press faster it goes- and a speed control near the motor- to control the max speed generated by the foot control at max setting.

lower settings of the speed control by the motor allow for easier control with the foot control- hope that makes sense- easier to demonstarte than explain I guess.

Makes perfect sense to me. I wasnt sure if thats what you meant or not. I guess I have a really nice foot pedal as I can go really slow to all the way up to full speed (which I will not wrap a rod with). I do need a motor with more torque as my current one is sluggish and needs a little help when it comes to heavier trolling and bottom rods of which I build a lot of.

Sean

Rick,
I have tried many different maxium speeds for a power wrapper.
I have used variable speed motors of different sorts and different belt ratios to try to optimize the speed.
The speed that I have finally settled on is 300 rpm.

i.e. if I have m y speed control running at top motor rpm, my rod blank will be spinning at 300 rpm.
I will use this speed after I have a butt wrap started and am running down the blank with the thread. Obviously, when starting a thread, you are turning it in fractions of rpm - starting and stopping to get it just right.

I tried various combinations of ac motors, sewing machine motors, gear drive motors etc.

The wrappers that I have now designed and built use 24 volt dc gear motors that have an output speed at 24 volts = 350 rpm.
Then, I use one to one pulleys to drive my chuck which hold and drives my blank.
I use a 0-24 volt dc power supply that is controlled by a variable resistor in a foot pedal. Completly silent and excellent control. Since the motor is DC, it will run equally well in either direction. One simply has to reverse the leads going to the motor to reverse its direction.
So, I incorporated a double pole double throw rocker switch to reverse the voltage polarity at the flip of a switch.
This allows me to easily back up the motor to correct a mistake.

Since, the motor is gear driven with a 500-1 reduction ratio in the gears, it is very difficult to back up the rod with no power applied to the motor.

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The next best wrapper that I made was to use one of the Dayton - right angle gear motors using 110V ac input. This motor comes in various output rpms and has 4 wires coming from the motor to allow one to reverse the direction of the motor by flipping the reference of brushes to armature settings. These motors are very very strong motors with large 1/2 inch shafts coming off the final drives. By finding them at surplus they are readily available at a decent price. If you pay new price for these motors they run about $300 for the motor.
Again, I use a common AC foot pedal speed control to vary the AC power to the motor to effectively change the speed. The only downside to these motors and is the reason that I am not currently using them is noise. The right angle gears are quite noisy and are irritating after hours of wrapping.

However, these motors still have a good use, since they are virtually unstoppable and I use them in some of my glue layups when I want a positive rotation of the rods - even if I have them under some pressure.
These are also useful for turning work, except that the speeds are typically too slow for any kind of effective lathe work.

Summary -
Go with a final top speed of 300 rpm, with an excellent 0-5 rpm speed and have the ability to reverse the rod under power and keep the noise down and you will be very happy with your power wrapper.

Take care
Roger

Roger,

Have you considered stepper motors? I get them from a surplus store that salvages old printers and copiers. They are very flexible and relatively quiet. I especially like the ability to stop and lock the motor at a specific place. I can also set them up to rotate a specific number of degrees then stop and hold, great for things like chevron wraps. Of course easily reversed etc. They do require a microcontroller and a motor driver, but for about $10 you can get everything you need to get them going including a foot control with a 10K pot.

I agree on the 300 RPM. That has always seemed compfortable for me.