NEVER THROW OUT A WASHING MACHINE OR DRYER WITHOUT TAKING THE MOTOR OUT FIRST

chief38 · #1 09-14-2017, 09:28 PM

As the title says, the motors in washers and dryers are usually 1750 RPM 1/3 HP motors and are so useful in making Work Shop Machines. As long as I am currently in "Work Shop posting mode" I will just point out how useful these appliance motors can be.

36 years ago I made a dedicated Wire Wheel from a washing machine motor. The safety hood is just a piece of sheet metal and the 1/2" Arbor is available in any descent hardware store. I did not want to remove one of the wheels on my Bench Grinder as most guys do because I have two different types of wheels on it. One is a 60 grit Silicone Carbide wheel for Aluminum, Brass and alike soft metals, and the other side is a 60 grit Aluminum Oxide for steels. This machine gets used heavily and the motor is an Emerson and probably 45 - 50 years old and still going strong.

The other machine I'd like to show you is a buffing machine made about 10 years ago from a similar 1/3 HP GE motor. It uses 8 inch wheels that are changed for different applications and different buffing compounds. The shield and shop vacuum port in the rear are made from heavy gauge Aluminum. I plug in my shop vac when buffing and that keeps most of the compound dust from getting all over.

I have a few more motors that I want to make other Shop machinery from and one day will actually get to it. I'd like to mount a 3 jaw chuck to one for smoothing out and sizing round stock. I do not use my Drill Press for work like that because putting perpendicular pressure on a Drill Press Quill prematurely wears out the bearings. Unfortunately I have not found a good lathe yet.

Hope this gives some here food for thought!