Pickup Winder Issues

Hi everyone, Im still working on getting my pickup winder running. I took apart an old sewing machine and got the motor, shaft and belt. I still need a pulley and some collars. I got some plates for mounting the pickups on and a metal enclosure from my dads work in the scrap box. However, Im having issues with the wiring. I was experimenting with some parts and managed to shock myself twice, blow a fuse and burn up the 25 ohm rheostat I got at radiochack. There has to be a better way of doing it. What Im wondering is how I can wire the motor to a pot or rheostat to control the speed, and how to get the counter in the circuit. I was looking at a Cub3L maybe. Any tips? Id really like to get this thing done. And without killing myself preferably. Thanks.

I'm not familiar with a the rheostat but i googled & came up with a few different types
Id use the foot pedal with the sewing machine ,they say the router control is the best
http://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html
As for the cub 3 ,Here's a crude diagram i made a few years ago with the cub 3 wired to the proximity sensor on my winder & i used a 12 vdc adapter & had kicking around the house
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb9/copperheadroads/wiring.jpg

The router control would probably be a nice way to go. I'm doing mine the easy way - sewing machine, calculator tied to a reedswitch which counts the rotation of the old sewing machine wheel.