November 8, 20187 yr Hi all. So it rained this week, and I haven't had flashing on my stack for my coal forge all summer. I wasn't thinking properly and I ran my forge with my electric blower. It ran a little funny but I attributed it to a damp rheostat. Long story short, the blower burnt out. It's a Champion No. 50 blower, which is unfortunate because there's not much information left on them, much less spare parts. It's new to me, but it had been rebuilt before judging by the local electric shop stickey on it. Opening it up, it was apparent that it had been over-oiled frequently in its lifetime. One of the brush caps was solid plastic, most likely replaced the last time it had been in the repair shop, so it probably wasn't making great contact. I should have taken it apart before. The water was probably just a push too far over the edge and it's well and truly dead. So now I have a dead motor, but still a good fan blade and housing. Before I take the motor to a repair shop and pay an exorbitant amount of money to get it looked at professionally, does anyone have any good ideas on a replacement motor? I was thinking about trying a box fan motor but I doubt it could be variably sped. Thanks in advance for ideas and admonishments!
November 8, 20187 yr Have you tried spraying the insides with WD-40? I have rescued several motors that had gotten wet using it. If it's a short due to moisture or oil/grease on the armature/brushes, it may help. Doesn't hurt to try and that is what WD-40 was designed to do.
November 9, 20187 yr Author I took to it with some brake cleaner, haven't tried WD-40. Had a multimeter in it and it's just not consistent across the coil, and I don't get any reading from the positive lead to either of the brush contacts.
November 10, 20187 yr Brake cleaner can damage the varnish used to insulate the windings! WD40 was formulated to dry electrical stuff, WD means Water Displacer. No more harsh chemicals! Frosty The Lucky.
November 10, 20187 yr I was thinking OUCH when you said brake cleaner too; but haven't used any in years due to an aversion to it's old chemical content and so don't know about the new stuff. If you have trashed the varnish you have pretty much trashed the motor.
November 10, 20187 yr Author Huh. TIL. That really sucks. I was just trying to get the soot out to try and make out if there were any breaks or anything
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.