I've found it very difficult to use the slower end of my Pac-bay rod smith RW-3XL. I swapped the pully on the dryer mtr to the wrapping mtr and that helped slow it down a little but I couldn't find a larger dia. pully with the right shaft size.The foot pedal was touchy and I couldn't control it well enough to use it slowly even with the rheostat turned all the way down. After some research on this board I bought a Foredom foot pedal and wired it up but still don't have a useable low speed. Looking at the lathe manual it talks about installing the 4000rpm mtr. Mine is a 6000. I did a google search and couldn't find any sewing machine mtrs 4000rpm or less. I don't know if I need a slower mtr. or if the answer lies in the rheostat. I don't build rods professionally so high lathe speed means very little to me and actually gets in the way. A few hundred rpm would probably be plenty for me. I'd appreciate some advice on how to slow this thing down.

Flex Coat 36 V DC variable speed and direction kit to the left.

Simply put, if you only use a wrapper for wrapping and or drying, there is never a need to have a 6000 rpm motor.

Rather a 100-300 rpm motor works just fine with a top speed of 100 rpm on the rod fills the bill very nicely.

Move over to a gear drive DC motor with a top speed of 150 - 300 rpm motor and you will be able to wrap nicely at 1 rpm if you wish.

Take care

[www.servocity.com]

I have the same wrapper, and I had problems with getting consistent low speed operation as well. Eventually, and actually pretty quickly, considering the small number of rods I had built, the speed control went out on my wrapper. I attributed it burning out so quickly to trying to get it to work at slow speeds. Be that as it may, I replaced the rheostat, and it made a world of difference.

I replaced it with a part meant for the Pac Bay wrapper, and if I remember correctly, I got it from @#$%&. I actually picked up two of them so I could have one as insurance. I just checked and @#$%& is out of stock on them. You could maybe give them a call and see if they expect to get any in. And if so, when they might expect them.

You might also try giving Utmost Enterprises a call and speak to Carol. From what I understand, Utmost is just down the street from Pac Bay. Carol is awesome and she may be able to give them a call to see if they have any in stock. Or Utmost may have them in stock.

Definitely worth a try. Especially the talking to Carol at Utmost thing. If she can help, she certainly will. Like I said, she's awesome.

I use a plug in speed controller. Works great and you can toggle it on and off. Plug your lathe into the controller and plug the controller into the wall.


[www.harborfreight.com]

Roger H.
Here is a picture of my power wrapper control seup and head stock:



[www.rodbuilding.org]

Here is an example of a universal control box, motor, and foot pedal for use as a power wrapper power unit to use for wrapping, finish application and or rod drying at the flip of a switch or a touch on a foot pedal.

[www.amazon.com]

Summary,
If you wish to have great speed control with easily implemented reverse function, look to a dc gear motor with power supply and speed controller as shown in the attached link.

[www.amazon.com]

First off I'd like to thank everyone for their replies. After viewing a lot of information available by using the search function and looking at mtrs,gears,pullys,rectifiers,transformers,pwr supplies, ft pedals, on/off and fwd/reverse switches etc. I finally saw the light. I'm calling flex coat in the morning! Thanks again.

You just made a wise decision.

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