DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2008-09-20, Christopher Tidy wrote:

DoN. Nichols wrote:

On 2008-09-19, Christopher Tidy wrote:


Hi folks,

I am repairing an electric motor for a friend. The centrifugal switch is
broken. It needs a replacement felt washer as the original has worn
down. It needs to be a hard felt washer (not the kind which is rubber


[ ... ]


You can get sheet hard felt from McMaster Carr (among other
places). You can use arch punches to cut the ID and the OS -- and the
main question is "how critical is the concentricity"?. This is the same
kind of felt used to make way wipers.

Probably not that critical. I have just been sent a pair of fairly hard
felt washers of the correct size by a company as a free sample.


Great!

Well, the first try wasn't great. The motor tripped the circuit breakers
in the workshop, and I've yet to figure out why.

Hopefully these will work, but if not someone else has suggested I try
leather (not sure how easy it is to find leather which is 1/8" thick,
though).


Hmm ... my belt is averaging abound 0.147", so it could be
sanded down to the needed thickness.

Leather sounds promising, but I was told that it loses its stiffness
when it gets exposed to oil. I was also thinking about using Tufnol
(SRBF), which would have the necessary insulating properties. I wonder
if Tufnol washers are available ready made?

Many thanks,

Chris