drbitboy
Lifetime Supporting Member
What do you all do for replacement DC motor brushes when you can't get them from normal channels?
TL;DR
Hi All,
Spent yesterday evening working with my son on his corded 2015 SnowJoe snow blower, which had stopped working.
The symptom was no response - i.e. the auger did not turn - to the switch turning on. The headlight did come on, so we were somewhat certain the switches were working, which turned out to be true.
We took it apart, all Phillips-head, although there was was a fair bit of corrosion we only had to drill out one screw, and eventually got down to the motor.
Once we spun the motor a few times by hand, we were able to get it to start, maybe one time in three, although it did not sound right i.e. spinning too slow (yeah fools without goggles, although we did at least remove the belt so only the motor was turning, and not the auger). There was a lot of sparking on one brush/commutator side. The brushes were carbon (graphite?) like a pencil lead, and it seemed to us that the springs were not pushing that hard. I took out the brush that had more sparks, and its commutator end was angled (worn down non-square), maybe 30° or so.
I didn't think to stretch the spring, but I did flip the brush around, so the angle was reversed, hoping to have the sharp side of the angle make better contact with the commutator. And that did improve things quite a bit: the motor ran much better (proper high-pitched whine we remember); the motor also started reliably, ten out of ten times, without needing a spin by hand to find a better starting spot.
We put it back together without too many screws left over
. We are hopeful this hack will get him through the rest of the winter, as it took six years to degrade to this point.
Anyway, does anyone have advice where to find replacement brushes? We found a thread online where someone contacted the the manufacturer looking for brushes, and were refused brushes and instead offered a new SnowJoe instead, because they were still in warranty.
Can we wing this, make some measurements and get some similar brushes from Amazon, and shape them to fit if necessary? The spring is the conductor from the brush holder contact to the brush.
Most of my motor experience comes from the pancake motor of the Aurora HO-scale slot cars, but I suspect the principles are the same: keep it clean; ensure contact is made?
TL;DR
Hi All,
Spent yesterday evening working with my son on his corded 2015 SnowJoe snow blower, which had stopped working.
The symptom was no response - i.e. the auger did not turn - to the switch turning on. The headlight did come on, so we were somewhat certain the switches were working, which turned out to be true.
We took it apart, all Phillips-head, although there was was a fair bit of corrosion we only had to drill out one screw, and eventually got down to the motor.
Once we spun the motor a few times by hand, we were able to get it to start, maybe one time in three, although it did not sound right i.e. spinning too slow (yeah fools without goggles, although we did at least remove the belt so only the motor was turning, and not the auger). There was a lot of sparking on one brush/commutator side. The brushes were carbon (graphite?) like a pencil lead, and it seemed to us that the springs were not pushing that hard. I took out the brush that had more sparks, and its commutator end was angled (worn down non-square), maybe 30° or so.
I didn't think to stretch the spring, but I did flip the brush around, so the angle was reversed, hoping to have the sharp side of the angle make better contact with the commutator. And that did improve things quite a bit: the motor ran much better (proper high-pitched whine we remember); the motor also started reliably, ten out of ten times, without needing a spin by hand to find a better starting spot.
We put it back together without too many screws left over
. We are hopeful this hack will get him through the rest of the winter, as it took six years to degrade to this point.Anyway, does anyone have advice where to find replacement brushes? We found a thread online where someone contacted the the manufacturer looking for brushes, and were refused brushes and instead offered a new SnowJoe instead, because they were still in warranty.
Can we wing this, make some measurements and get some similar brushes from Amazon, and shape them to fit if necessary? The spring is the conductor from the brush holder contact to the brush.
Most of my motor experience comes from the pancake motor of the Aurora HO-scale slot cars, but I suspect the principles are the same: keep it clean; ensure contact is made?
