Gear motor for an auto traverse

[tonedeciple]

My oscillating fan motor died and I'm thinking of replacing it with a 12vdc, 15rpm gear motor like the one in the photo. Would this work or would I need something different?

[Bruce Johnson]

Yes, that's the type of motor that you want, a DC gearmotor. With a DC motor, you can easily vary the speed through a wide range by changing the input voltage. A simple variable DC power supply will run it, or even a battery with a potentiometer.

The 15 rpm output speed of that particular motor may be a little slow for you. With your cam drive feed system, the 15 rpm max speed would probably be about right for a winder spindle speed of maybe 400 rpm. I'm just guessing, based on eyeballing the geometry of your cam. You'd probably be better off with a 60 rpm gearmotor. That should allow you to get your spindle speed up in the 1500-2000 rpm speed range. But, you could adjust the speed of the gearmotor through a range of maybe 5-60 rpm. That would give you a good working range.

[tonedeciple]

Thanks for the input Bruce. If I can't find a decent fan motor at Goodwill in the next week or so, I may try a 30 rpm gearmotor and wire it into the 12vdc adapter that powers my counter.