rrw@naucse.UUCP (Robert Wier) (09/29/89)
I'm not sure if this is the right newsgroup, but... Can anyone tell me why it is that small fractional horsepower electric motors eventually sieze up and stall after a few months of usage. What I'm basically thinking of are small tabletop fans of the 6" to 24" size. It seems they all run fine for 4 or 5 months, and then start more and more slowly. If you let them just sit and hum, they will ususally start up. I've disassembled a bunch of these guys, and they usually have accumulated some junk on the bearings (assuming they have bearings...some dont). If you clean them off, and lube them a bit they will work fine for a few weeks, and then they start having the same problem again. I've tried everything from no lube, to wd 40, to teflon based oils with no success. Strangely enough, no lube seems to work as well as anything. Putting lube on there just seems to attract dust. What causes this. Are they so cheaply made that the frame warps, making it impossible to get the rotor to turn freely? I'm assuming that letting the current run through them when they've stalled heats something up (either the "bearing") or the lube, giving enough clearance that they will then run. I'm nervous about doing this because of the fire danger. Any suggestions? --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Bob Wier Northern Arizona University Ouray, Colorado & Flagstaff, Arizona USENET: ...arizona!naucse!rrw | BITNET: WIER@NAUVAX | WB5KXH