On Jan 31, 1:07 pm, "Al A." wrote:
First, thanks to all of you who chimed in on this and offered to help.
Very much appreciated.

When we last left our hero....

So after hitting all of the easy to get to hardware stores and coming
up dry, I finally had a bit of time to do some off the path searching
today. A few of the hardware places had some, but not the size I needed
or anything oversize, that could be altered to fit.

There is a auto electric place the next town over from where I work,
so I stopped by there. Lots of different sorts of DC motors, not just
auto stuff. It looked really promising. The guy there was very helpful,
but they did not have the size I needed. He took some time and dug
around in their odds-and-ends boxes and managed to find one brush that
was right in one dimension, and a bit wide in the other. But only one.
He was almost apologetic, and he gave it to me and refused any money. I
like places like that. Anyhow, I really needed two, (one was damaged,
the other worn down to a stub) but he did say he could get them in any
size in about a week, if need be. So at least I had an option. I figured
that maybe what I had would at least allow me to try the thing out and
decide if it is worth further investment.

On the way home, I happened to pass by a Sears Hardware place, and
remembered that DT here had mentioned that he saw a bunch of them there.
So I turned around and went in, as I had a stripped ratchet to swap
there (been carrying it around in the van for months) anyhow. Got my
ratchet, and checked the hardware isle. Sure enough, 3 trays of assorted
brushes! In the box of brushes for things like electric lawnmowers and
chainsaws, I found the exact size I needed. 4 bucks each! The little
brass plates at the ends of the springs were different, but I just
removed the plates from the old ones and soldered them onto the plates
of the new brushes. The commutator on the motor looked a bit rough, so I
ran it between centers on the lathe, and did a few light cleanup cuts
with a sharp roundnose tool. Cleaned out all of the slots, reassembled
the motor, and the thing runs great! I am running this on a KB variable
speed controller, and can run this down to maybe 5 or 10 RPM, smooth and
strong. When the worm drive box is attached (10:1 reduction) this should
work great for the bandsaw.

Thanks again for all who offered ideas and help. In spite of all of
the BS, sporge and trolls who just won't shut up, RCM is still a great
place!

-AL A

Truly excellent! - a good feeling to do something like that, fix
something rather than throw it out.

An old electricians trick is to get brushes, bigger, and file them
down to size. Messy, but it can be done. You have already figured out
changing the contactor caps....

Regards,

Andrew VK3BFA.

wrote:

Truly excellent! - a good feeling to do something like that, fix
something rather than throw it out.

An old electricians trick is to get brushes, bigger, and file them
down to size. Messy, but it can be done. You have already figured out
changing the contactor caps....

Regards,

Andrew VK3BFA.

It is great to get something like this going. I was going to do that
"sand them down" trick, but could not seem to find any that were
oversized in the correct way. And boy, it IS messy!

Thanks,
AL A.