[TheForge] Re: Buffalo forge blower/ Magic of motors

[Mike Spencer]

Bob> I picked up a foot control for a sewing machine at a garage
Bob> sale....Do you recall your hook up?

Nope, not for absolute sure. Had to go look.

Bob> I assume it goes into one side of the line from the power source
Bob> and then to one of the wires to the motor, more or less like you
Bob> hook up a switch to a lamp.


That's right.  That's how mine is, just as if it were a simple switch.


             +-------------+            +-------+
  o----------| foot switch |------------| motor |------+
             +-------------+            +-------+      |
  Line                                                 |
                                                       |
  o----------------------------------------------------+

I got just a little fancy with mine and fixed it up so that I have two
ca. 4' cords coming out of the foor switch: one with a male plug and
one with a female plug so I can plug any one of three drills into it
and end up with some slack to position the pedal for different
setups. But the connections are still just like the picture above.

This fairly new foot switch has some kind of solid state thingy
inside, just a ceramic block with a plunger in it.  I haven't taken it
all apart to see how it works.


I had a look at an older one while I out in the shop.  It has a cute
arrangement with a two-socket outlet in the middle of the cord.  The
outlets are labeled "M" and "L".  A bit of experimenting reveals that
M is for the Machine and is in series with the nichrome wire rheostat
in the foot switch.  L is for Light and gets straight line voltage
regardless of the pedal position.  Nice for the sewing machine, I
guess, but superfluous for me.


HTH,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^