I've got a table top oscillating fan that's been in the
family for maybe twenty years. Used it yesterday to blow
dry a room that took a bit of rain. Ran a few hours and
warmed up, the fan stopped.

If it's the fan I think, my dad had oiled it several
times, and twice for me.

Has anyone tried cleaning the whole thing out with
oven cleaner, or non acid refrigeration coil cleaner,
and then let it totally dry and re-oil it? I suspect
the old oil and petroleum is finding its way to the
bearings, repeatedly.

Yes, I could buy another fan, but who has money these
days? Not me!

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 10:29:02 -0400, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

I've got a table top oscillating fan that's been in the
family for maybe twenty years. Used it yesterday to blow
dry a room that took a bit of rain. Ran a few hours and
warmed up, the fan stopped.

If it's the fan I think, my dad had oiled it several
times, and twice for me.

Has anyone tried cleaning the whole thing out with
oven cleaner, or non acid refrigeration coil cleaner,
and then let it totally dry and re-oil it? I suspect
the old oil and petroleum is finding its way to the
bearings, repeatedly.

Yes, I could buy another fan, but who has money these
days? Not me!

Last thing I'd use is oven cleaner. There are some electrical contact
cleaners in a spray can that would probably work. They won't harm
anything or leave residue. Worst case though, is you cause the
present glop to run and spread to someplace it should not.

CRC and Gunk both make a motor cleaner in spray cans, about $10.

On Wednesday, July 30, 2014 11:54:49 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 10:29:02 -0400, Stormin Mormon

wrote:



I've got a table top oscillating fan that's been in the

family for maybe twenty years. Used it yesterday to blow

dry a room that took a bit of rain. Ran a few hours and

warmed up, the fan stopped.



If it's the fan I think, my dad had oiled it several

times, and twice for me.



Has anyone tried cleaning the whole thing out with

oven cleaner, or non acid refrigeration coil cleaner,

and then let it totally dry and re-oil it? I suspect

the old oil and petroleum is finding its way to the

bearings, repeatedly.



Yes, I could buy another fan, but who has money these

days? Not me!



Last thing I'd use is oven cleaner. There are some electrical contact

cleaners in a spray can that would probably work. They won't harm

anything or leave residue. Worst case though, is you cause the

present glop to run and spread to someplace it should not.



CRC and Gunk both make a motor cleaner in spray cans, about $10.

+1 on the oven cleaner, which contains lye.

On 7/30/2014 11:54 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 10:29:02 -0400, Stormin Mormon
Has anyone tried cleaning the whole thing out with
oven cleaner, or non acid refrigeration coil cleaner,
and then let it totally dry and re-oil it? I suspect
the old oil and petroleum is finding its way to the
bearings, repeatedly.

Last thing I'd use is oven cleaner. There are some electrical contact
cleaners in a spray can that would probably work. They won't harm
anything or leave residue. Worst case though, is you cause the
present glop to run and spread to someplace it should not.

CRC and Gunk both make a motor cleaner in spray cans, about $10.


Oven cleaner should remove grease residue, with minimal
damage to metals.

I tried some last couple drops of trichlor I had,
yesterday. The fan isn't worth a ten dollar can of
spray. If I use the fan again in the next few days
(very likely) will see how it goes. I might invest
a two dollar can of brake cleaner, or carb cleaner.
Ten for CRC is more than the fan is worth.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 7/30/2014 11:49 AM, wrote:
If the blade is just bound up you might be able to fix it by lubing
the shaft. If the blade spins and it won't run, you probably blew the
thermal fuse inside,

These things use an oilite bearing that is factory lubricated. Once
that is gone, reoiling is going to be a temporary fix. Usually you are
best off by cleaning the bearing with a solvent like paint thinner or
laquer thinner, then oiling it.

I had a few drops of trichlor in a can. Sprayed the
shaft and armature, and then squirt of zoom spout
tubrine oil. Runs for now, but that's what I said
the last time. And the last time slowed and stopped
after a few hours of run time.

This time instead of spray cans, maybe I'll use
cotton swabs and paint thinner, and clean it out
but good.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

No, oven cleaner shouldn't affect a petroleum based oil at all. That is, cleaning the fan motor with oven cleaner probably wouldn't be any more effective than cleaning it with KoolAid or chicken soup.

Oven cleaner is NaOH. It works well to clean ovens and grills because it breaks TRIGLYCERIDES (which is what animal fats and vegetable oils are) into soap molecules in a chemical process called "saponification". And, soap molecules are easy to clean up because they're soluble in water.

What's important to note is that those animal fats and vegetable oils have carboxyl groups in their fatty acids. That's the -O-(C=O)- groups in the diagram of a triglyceride at the top of this web page:
Triglyceride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...and the NaOH reacts at the carboxyl groups to break the triglyceride into a molecule of glycerine and three soap molecules.

Petroleum oils are a completely different thing. Petroleum based oils don't have those carboxyl groups in them, and therefore that same saponification reaction can't occur. I expect that the lye wouldn't react with a petroleum based oil at all, or at least there's no way the NaOH would react with petroleum based oils in the same way it reacts with cooking oils.

If someone wants to use oven cleaner to clean some motor oil off a surface, I'd like to hear what the results are. I expect the oven cleaner will be found to do nothing at all to the motor oil, or nothing more than KoolAid or chicken soup would do.

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 19:23:36 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 16:02:37 -0400, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

Ten for CRC is more than the fan is worth.

Throw the thing away and get a new one.
And replace it in about the same time the old one fails after
re-lubing.

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 21:41:13 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 21:32:23 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 19:23:36 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 16:02:37 -0400, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

Ten for CRC is more than the fan is worth.

Throw the thing away and get a new one.
And replace it in about the same time the old one fails after
re-lubing.

Not really true. You can try to get some oil in an oilite bearing but
it will never be as good as a new one.
We used a buttload of those motors in the computer biz, back when they
actually were fixed and our efforts in reoiling them was always a
temporary fix.
My point was the new crap doesn't stand up worth a hoot. Not at all
uncommon for them to fail within 13 or 14 months - and not THAT
uncommon for them to fail within warranty.

There are fans out their that will last - but the are not cheap. (and
sadly, just because you pay a lot for something doesn't mean you get
something that is not "cheap"

Stormin Mormon wrote:
I've got a table top oscillating fan that's been in the
family for maybe twenty years. Used it yesterday to blow
dry a room that took a bit of rain. Ran a few hours and
warmed up, the fan stopped.

If it's the fan I think, my dad had oiled it several
times, and twice for me.

Has anyone tried cleaning the whole thing out with
oven cleaner, or non acid refrigeration coil cleaner,
and then let it totally dry and re-oil it? I suspect
the old oil and petroleum is finding its way to the
bearings, repeatedly.

Yes, I could buy another fan, but who has money these
days? Not me!


Aside from dissambly, I would use something like WD-40 (ha) first, then use
heavier oils. I reoil fans I use often, some which run for days. The thin
spirits in WD -40 ooze out with old gunk.

Greg

On 7/30/2014 9:32 PM, wrote:
Ten for CRC is more than the fan is worth.

Throw the thing away and get a new one.
And replace it in about the same time the old one fails after
re-lubing.


Quality: It's just a slogan!

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 7/30/2014 7:23 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 16:02:37 -0400, Stormin Mormon
wrote:

Ten for CRC is more than the fan is worth.

Throw the thing away and get a new one.

Sigh. There is great wisdom in this counsel.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 7/31/2014 3:30 AM, gregz wrote:
Aside from dissambly, I would use something like WD-40 (ha) first, then use
heavier oils. I reoil fans I use often, some which run for days. The thin
spirits in WD -40 ooze out with old gunk.

Greg


Today I got two small bottles of oil for
electric motors. Might try that some time,
after blasting the old out with some thing.
I may have some brake cleaner in cans, try
that. Cheap enough.

Will also look for close out and clearance
on fans, in case this one goes out again.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 7/31/2014 8:12 PM, wrote:

The way it was explained to us is that these bearings are made of
porous bronze and empregnated with oil in the manufacturing process.
Over time the volatile parts of the oil evaporate away leaving the
gummy part. You can put more oil in there are free it up for a while
but the gum is still there.
The only thing that really works is dissolving out all the gum with a
solvent and getting oil in there at the same concentration it was.
That is easier said than done without removing the bearings and
working in a tank.

They do sell common sizes pretty cheap at Ace Hardware but I am not
sure it is worth doing for a $10 fan.


Thank you. That helps explain why re-oil only lasts a
short time. The heavier fractions are still in the
bearing.
--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..