We live in a incredible time, often the value of components is greater than the whole....I have been buying treadmills from my favorite recycling store. This is my 6th this year. Believe it or not good treadmills that sell for 1800 to 3000 ( new retail)can be bought for 35 to 60 dollars ( like I said I have bought 6 this year) They go for 35 to 60 dollars, cheaper under 1500 dollar units (new retail price) go for more, 60 to 100 dollars. The more expensive one are often over 30 inches wide, so that means they cant go through standard 30 inch door ways without having to be taken apart. So they often sell at a discount just to move them.

Here is why you might want to buy some at these prices....the parts are invaluable...here is one I am just getting to take apart. I will just show you 3 parts that are so Handy to have.

The motor on this one is a 2.2 hp DC motor, it has a huge heavy flywheel on the left side(that can be removed if you wish). That is a very powerful motor to have...the uses are endless

Then there is the linier actuator for providing the motorized incline. A completely inclosed motor and actuator capable of forward and reverse operation...think about it...this could be the actuator for tilting your solar array.

Then there is the circuit board, you can use this to control the speed of your motor if you wish, or on this model it can control the actuator as well if you want.....but these type of control boards have other uses, after all they are capable of controlling DC...so you could use this board to control up to 1500 watts of resistive DC heating ( yes I have done it for heating water) the uses are only limited by your imagination.

The treadmill cost me 55 dollars total