Can you direct us to a photo of one? It sounds really simple to build.

eta: Is it this?

you could pick up an inexpensive electric drill, mount it to a wooden base, and chuck a bolt into it that would hold the disk. Most VS drills have a trigger lock. You could also plug the drill into a dimmer and use that to adjust your speed.

Depending on how tight you bolted the disk, that connection could act as a sort of clutch.

Any small, variable speed motor would do. I'm sure you cold pick up a turntable at goodwill and use that. Belt drive would allow for the disk to slip and would allow you to gear down or up.

Yep, that's the one.

I definitely like the drill idea, since they have rechargeable batteries.

My inner asshole came out and said to use a Dremel. 35,000 RPM!!

Look here for slower models to work her up to the big boy.

This motor looks promising.
http://www.amazon.com/Wondermotor-Va...lectric+Motors

It comes with the speed controller knob attached to a foot long wire, and it's reversible depending on how you wire it. But you could add a switch to make it reversible at the flip of a switch.

At a max speed of 50 RPM it seems perfect. You wouldn't be able to follow a spinning disk with your eye any faster than that. If you have an old turntable, you should follow that with your eye to see what 45RPM looks like.

It's a little expensive, so if you got it and the variable speed wasn't as smooth as you wanted, you would be out $90. But it has some kind of mounting holes, which is nice, and it's fairly powerful, so you wouldn't be taxing it too much. They suggest a $17 power supply that goes with it. With that power supply, you would plug it into the wall.

I don't know enough about electronics to know what that controller is like. I don't know what pulse width modulation means. But I'm guessing you turn the knob to turn it on and then turn it more to make it go faster, up to 50 RPM. It's got a 10 MM drive shaft (1 cm) which is nice and big to work with. Many small motors have these little drive shafts, and how are you going to mount a big disk to those?

That looks perfect glatt, thanks!

http://www.nielsendesigndiscgrinder....c_Grinder.html

Instead of attaching abrasives you could attach just about anything else (like a small child, given a big enough motor).

I think 1800 rpm is a bit much for the eye to follow... :)

Clodfobble

you're a big cooker person. do you own a kitchenaid stand mixer?

I do, but I don't exactly want to dismantle it...

!!!
well I don't but twil does. I was monkeying around with hers while she was mixing the pumpkin pie fillling and I discovered the little chrome cover that hides the front PTO. that's the power take off for accessories that don't use the bowl. I noticed that it has what looks like a half inch square drive. and I noticed that the whole drive/head tilts upward. and I noticed that the speed control is adjustable and looks like it starts pretty slow.

could this be the drive unit for your Clod-traption?

I'll have to check when I get home (at the in-laws' for Thanksgiving right now,) but I think the head doesn't tilt all the way back, just 45 degrees or so. I could maybe make her stand beneath it and look up, though. To be honest I've lost most of my steam for the project though, they've already moved on to more advanced exercises in therapy. They did a reevaluation with the doctor last week to see how she's doing, and everything was greatly improved. It's cool to watch her picking out 3D stereogram pictures that she simply could not see 10 weeks ago.

"greatly improved"

what a great problem to have!

enjoy your company and your holiday. we'll continue later. happy thanksgiving