Motor for Milling Station?

Anyone have any experience with electric motors? I salvaged a chandelier lift system from my mother-in-law's previous home. It has a 1/3 hp motor with a belt system. I'm trying to figure out if it can be used to power my JSP Maltmill.







Here's a pic after I stripped away the unnecessary parts. The motor has white, blue & red wires coming from it. The motor is apparently reversible. Don't need it to be for grinding malt, though. I need to figure out how to wire it up to a switch. I assume I'll have to use that capacitor in some way.



Any thoughts?

Should work. 1/3 horse might be a bit low, but I would give it a try. Like a 1 inch sheave on the motor and a 10 inch sheave on the mill. This will reduce the RPMs to 150 and provide a bit of torque.

fernholz said:

Should work. 1/3 horse might be a bit low, but I would give it a try. Like a 1 inch sheave on the motor and a 10 inch sheave on the mill. This will reduce the RPMs to 150 and provide a bit of torque.

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That's good advice.

Can anyone tell me how to wire it up to use? I'm stupid when it comes to electricity!

It should be just a matter of getting it geared down enough. A larger sheave on the mill for a slower speed might be needed if it can't run it.

One thing I note is that motor says 'int' on it, which probably means it is meant for intermittent duty only. Such as running for 30 seconds or a minute to raise or lower the chandelier, and not to run for an hour or even 20 minutes to grind grain. If it isn't loaded too hard it should be ok, plus since it says thermally protected it should just trip its internal overload if it gets too hot.

It gives a hint at wiring on the label, it looks like the starting capacitor is in the circuit, usually on that type of motor it starts with the capacitor until it reaches a certain speed then cuts the capacitor out I think.

Thanks! Only takes me a couple minutes to grind my grain powered with a drill. I'm hoping this motor will do the same.

It seems like that motor should be perfect for the application then, if your drill can run it, that motor should be plenty. I can't quite tell from the diagram how it hooks up. It almost looks like the white wire is neutral, then maybe putting the hot on the red wire makes it rotate one direction and putting the hot on the blue wire makes it turn the other direction, with the capacitor always in parallel?

porcupine73 said:

It seems like that motor should be perfect for the application then, if your drill can run it, that motor should be plenty. I can't quite tell from the diagram how it hooks up. It almost looks like the white wire is neutral, then maybe putting the hot on the red wire makes it rotate one direction and putting the hot on the blue wire makes it turn the other direction, with the capacitor always in parallel?

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Perhaps. It had originally all been hooked up to that circuit board you see in the picture. Do you think that needs to be used? Not sure what it does. The only thing that was controlled besides the motor was the light of the chandelier.

I don't think the circuit board is needed, I see three relays on there, I'm guessing probably one was for the light, one for up, and one for down. The circuit board I'm guessing probably had limit switches so it knew when it was at the top or bottom of the range.

porcupine73 said:

I don't think the circuit board is needed, I see three relays on there, I'm guessing probably one was for the light, one for up, and one for down. The circuit board I'm guessing probably had limit switches so it knew when it was at the top or bottom of the range.

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I think you're right. Thanks!

I don't want you to get hurt for something I said!!! If it were me (not you) I'd run power in through the capictor and in to the motor(red or blue) white is ground. From the pictures it looks like that is a run capictor and not a start capictor (I don't know). I would take an amp draw on start up and not let it run without a load for to long. I don't think I can tell you how many ways this can go bad, from the capictor blowing up spraying oil/acid or the motor shorting out the housing causing possible death.... just to show how little I know; how could a 1/3 hp motor lift a grown person up the stairs? I'm not saying it can't, I'm saying it's hard for me to understand.

mikescooling said:

I don't want you to get hurt for something I said!!! If it were me (not you) I'd run power in through the capictor and in to the motor(red or blue) white is ground. From the pictures it looks like that is a run capictor and not a start capictor (I don't know). I would take an amp draw on start up and not let it run without a load for to long. I don't think I can tell you how many ways this can go bad, from the capictor blowing up spraying oil/acid or the motor shorting out the housing causing possible death.... just to show how little I know; how could a 1/3 hp motor lift a grown person up the stairs? I'm not saying it can't, I'm saying it's hard for me to understand.

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Well, I wasn't planning to actually hook it up without someone that really knows what I have to help me. After doing some Google searches, I had questioned what kind of capacitor it was, as well. Prior to that, I didn't know there were different types.

The motor was used for a chandelier lift system that raises and lowers a chandelier on a cable so you can change the light bulbs without using a ladder. It's not for riding up and down the stairs! LOL!