Fredrick Paget on sun 4 apr 04
The foot pedal of a Soldner wheel is the soul of the wheel. Without
that special foot pedal which includes the controller you just have
another wheel and if you put a Brent controller and foot pedal on it
it will be like a Brent and not a Soldner.
The Soldner controller is an expensive item because the controller
part of the foot pedal is a variable autotransformer (Variac) that
puts out a smooth voltage all the way from zero to max.
It is AC at that point so the AC is fed through a bridge rectifier
and then filtered in some more electrical parts so the net result is
a DC voltage to the motor that varies smoothly from zero to max. And
oh yes there is some kind of gearing between the foot pedal and the
Variac since it takes a full 340 degree rotation of the Variac shaft
to work it. Now you see why it is so big and heavy and expensive. The
technology is very old and low tech.
\Recent wheels try to get the smoothly variable DC with electronics
but seldom succeed as well especially at low speed. Modern
controllers have feedback so if you try to slow the wheel down by
putting more drag on the wheel the controller ups the voltage to the
motor to give more torque. A Soldner does not do that - you have to
do it by stepping on the pedal a little more. This becomes automatic
as you learn to use it and is never a problem for a person who gets
used to it.
We have two Soldners at the college and about a half dozen other
kinds of wheels Plus I have personally used about a half dozen more
kinds at various times and places and Soldner is the best .
Sorry to tell you this but you need that Soldner foot pedal.
Fred
--
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
fredrick@well.com
Mike Workman-Morelli on sun 4 apr 04
I'd check it out before buying. It may not work. I have an ancient
Soldner. It uses an industrial powerstat, which is a big heavy thing.
It changes 120 volts AC into varying DC voltages.
wayneinkeywest wrote:
>Shellie:
>$443 sounds way excessive. Continental Clay sells a replacement pedal for a Brent for around $72.
>Don't know what the difference would be. Seems like it's just a rheostat attached to a pedal, not rocket science or proprietary electronics. Anyone?
>Wayne Seidl
>
>
> hi folks, my first post to this list. i made a big mistake and purchased a soldner 318 wheel sight unseen on ebay. since they told me it worked fine, i naturally assumed that ment one could take it out of the box and use it. not so. it didn't come with the foot pedel. a new one can be purchased from bluebird for $443. so first i am hunting for a used 5amp foot pedel for a soldner wheel. alternately, does anyone have advice on how to make this usable without the foot pedel? thanks and much aloha to all. p.s. i'm in alaska, no hawaii. we just don't have such a lovely salutation as aloha.
>
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Shellie Mathews on sun 4 apr 04
hi folks, my first post to this list. i made a big mistake and purchased a soldner 318 wheel sight unseen on ebay. since they told me it worked fine, i naturally assumed that ment one could take it out of the box and use it. not so. it didn't come with the foot pedel. a new one can be purchased from bluebird for $443. so first i am hunting for a used 5amp foot pedel for a soldner wheel. alternately, does anyone have advice on how to make this usable without the foot pedel? thanks and much aloha to all. p.s. i'm in alaska, no hawaii. we just don't have such a lovely salutation as aloha.
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wayneinkeywest on sun 4 apr 04
Shellie:
$443 sounds way excessive. Continental Clay sells a replacement pedal =
for a Brent for around $72.
Don't know what the difference would be. Seems like it's just a =
rheostat attached to a pedal, not rocket science or proprietary =
electronics. Anyone?
Wayne Seidl
hi folks, my first post to this list. i made a big mistake and =
purchased a soldner 318 wheel sight unseen on ebay. since they told me =
it worked fine, i naturally assumed that ment one could take it out of =
the box and use it. not so. it didn't come with the foot pedel. a new =
one can be purchased from bluebird for $443. so first i am hunting for =
a used 5amp foot pedel for a soldner wheel. alternately, does anyone =
have advice on how to make this usable without the foot pedel? thanks =
and much aloha to all. p.s. i'm in alaska, no hawaii. we just don't =
have such a lovely salutation as aloha. =20
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on sun 4 apr 04
Hi Shelly,
If you have retained the Auction Number, you might refer to the Auction =
description of the item once more, and see if there was some ambiguity, =
or as to the Wheel being 'just' a 'wheel'...or something as might have =
alerted you to anticipate the absence of the pedal.
If you find some ambiguity there, contact the seller and see if you =
might find a little more satisfaction.
In my imagining, if they did not explicitly say in an up-front =
kind-of-way, that there was NO 'pedal', I would find some fault with =
them, and appeal to their sense of fair-play in regards to having that =
pedal sent to me, or for them to locate and supply one on their dime. I =
would try anyway...something...
Phil
lasvegas
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Shellie Mathews=20
hi folks, my first post to this list. i made a big mistake and =
purchased a soldner 318 wheel sight unseen on ebay. since they told me =
it worked fine, i naturally assumed that ment one could take it out of =
the box and use it. not so. it didn't come with the foot pedel. a new =
one can be purchased from bluebird for $443. so first i am hunting for =
a used 5amp foot pedel for a soldner wheel. alternately, does anyone =
have advice on how to make this usable without the foot pedel? thanks =
and much aloha to all. p.s. i'm in alaska, no hawaii. we just don't =
have such a lovely salutation as aloha. =20
Cindi Anderson on sun 4 apr 04
The Soldner foot pedal is expensive. Some people believe they have the best
foot pedals around, and I imagine (just guessing here) they think people buy
their wheel for the pedal so they don't want to give it away cheap. But
since you say the Brent foot pedal is $72 then I realize you might not be
talking about the same thing. There is a pedal (just the pedal) and there
is a pedal assembly including the speed control box. That quite a bit more,
even for the Brent wheels. So the question for Shellie is what do you need?
The whole system or just a foot pedal?
I am shocked that someone would sell this on eBay without telling you it had
no pedal. I would consider that a fraud. Have you reported it to eBay? I
believe they would back you on it, since that person said it worked fine.
Unless in the fine print it said that it was not a compete wheel.
Cindi
----- Original Message -----
From: "wayneinkeywest"
To:
Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: foot pedel for soldner wheel 318
Shellie:
$443 sounds way excessive. Continental Clay sells a replacement pedal for a
Brent for around $72.
Don't know what the difference would be. Seems like it's just a rheostat
attached to a pedal, not rocket science or proprietary electronics. Anyone?
Wayne Seidl
hi folks, my first post to this list. i made a big mistake and purchased
a soldner 318 wheel sight unseen on ebay. since they told me it worked
fine, i naturally assumed that ment one could take it out of the box and use
it. not so. it didn't come with the foot pedel. a new one can be
purchased from bluebird for $443. so first i am hunting for a used 5amp
foot pedel for a soldner wheel. alternately, does anyone have advice on how
to make this usable without the foot pedel? thanks and much aloha to all.
p.s. i'm in alaska, no hawaii. we just don't have such a lovely salutation
as aloha.
Andrew_M_Casto@PROGRESSIVE.COM on mon 5 apr 04
I don't have one of these wheels - but on the other issue here apart from
the bad ebay listing...
You asked why the foot pedal for this wheel would cost so much - I don't
know specifics, but I do know that the reason those wheels are so expensive
has a lot to do with that pedal. It's designed differently than other
models and is able to stay constant and offer more variability at slow
speeds.
Again - I'm sure someone on the list knows A LOT more than me about this, I
just know that pedal has a different design than the usual potentiometer
gig...I would imagine it would warrant $400.00 to replace.
Andy
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