Remote Speed Control for Milwaukee 5625

[MBG]

I recently purchased a 5625 at HDT black Friday sale for $190. I was planning on dedicating this router to a table under the wing of my TS.

When I was at Rockler the other day I saw my router motor with a remote power/speed control panel. It looked real slick until I saw the $499 price tag (look under new products at www.jessem.com ).

Then I thought they must have just moved/bypassed the pot. So I used a sharp thin wire dental pick and was successful revealing the pot contactors, broke two of the connections, determined the rating (0-100K ohms), soldered wire leads, and attached it to a new external pot. Works great. I used a 10-turn pot and it has great speed control (I tried a 270 deg pot from RadioShack but it only went to 92k and had about a 10 deg dead spot).

I now need to find a dial that counts the turns - any help on sources apprecitated.

(BTY - a replacement speed controller is $30 so I felt the mod was worth the risk. Also, I can easily undo the mods and use the factory dial if desired.)

Mike

[LCHIEN]

I recently purchased a 5625 at HDT black Friday sale for $190. I was planning on dedicating this router to a table under the wing of my TS.

When I was at Rockler the other day I saw my router motor with a remote power/speed control panel. It looked real slick until I saw the $499 price tag (look under new products at www.jessem.com ).

Then I thought they must have just moved/bypassed the pot. So I used a sharp thin wire dental pick and was successful revealing the pot contactors, broke two of the connections, determined the rating (0-100K ohms), soldered wire leads, and attached it to a new external pot. Works great. I used a 10-turn pot and it has great speed control (I tried a 270 deg pot from RadioShack but it only went to 92k and had about a 10 deg dead spot).

I now need to find a dial that counts the turns - any help on sources apprecitated.

(BTY - a replacement speed controller is $30 so I felt the mod was worth the risk. Also, I can easily undo the mods and use the factory dial if desired.)

Mike

+/- 10% overall resistance is not an unusual spec on a pot, usually the ratio is most important and the linearity thereof.

A ten-turn counting dial needs to be used with a ten-turn pot. Best ones were made by Beckman, but I have not designed those into equipment since the early 80's. Would be overkil for a speed controller and in fact counter productive, you want to be able to sweep the speed in a single turn, trust me.

[JR]

You're a brave man, Mike, to dive into your new tool and start cutting leads. Job well done, though.

JR

[MBG]

[quote=LCHIEN;229189]+/- 10% overall resistance is not an unusual spec on a pot, usually the ratio is most important and the linearity thereof. Problem is the dead spot and it really wasn't very linear (for the 270 deg pot).

A ten-turn counting dial needs to be used with a ten-turn pot. Best ones were made by Beckman, but I have not designed those into equipment since the early 80's. Would be overkil for a speed controller and in fact counter productive, you want to be able to sweep the speed in a single turn, trust me. I found some digital models available - for 10 turns it displays 0 to 100. The 10-turn pot I have is very linear. I think I can put a chart together of dial-in-number versus bit diameter. [/quote]

My other option is trying to find a higher quality 270 deg. model.

[LCHIEN]

My point is high resolution and linearity are not needed in motor speed control for power wood cutting tools. Usually you just adjust it to where it "feels" best. Motor speed adjustments for Drill presses for example have 1 of 5 to 1 of 15 settings and this is plenty to get close enough to the optimal speed.