"I thought about this last night, and true: The E12 motor (at least the
one with a field) *can* be run with field weakening, but it's not
supported by the simple contactor controller."

For those who wanted to run their machines using a curtis or similar and still be able to have field weakening, all you need to do is use the existing card, or run a variable resistor across the field. The general consensus was that most folks never used it. Also keep in mind that you are not supposed to be doing "work" while using the field weakening. Walt K was a tremendous resource who really knew all about these motors.

For those who wanted to go with a factory supported controller conversion, AND have help, Jim C really bent over backwards and was selling a plug and play solution. Kudos for all he has done. 

I only came up with a curtis design because there were a few other folks back then who were taking people's money, sending them a controller, and saying "good luck". It was ugly there for a while. One guy was just selling plans for more than Jim was asking for his kit.