Cleaning Commutators

[kc_kirby]

At this year's convention, Fred Stachnik showed us how to clean the commutator on our vacuum motors with some stones. I am wondering where I can obtain them? I have seen commutator cleaning or seating stones, but most of them look like they require the motor to be spinning to be used. In a lot of cases, its not possible to get to the commutator with the motor intact. I'd like to be able to clean the commutator with the armature out of the motor like we did at the convention. Any ideas or tips?

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Howdy!

You can use them with or without the motor running.
When using the cleaning stone, I prefer to us that with the motor not running - with the armature removed - like I did at the convention. Sometimes, if there is excessive arcing between the carbon brushes and commutator plates, when the motor is reassembled, then you will need to use the white diamond, brush seater stone. When using that one, it IS best to use it when the motor is running. Or, turn the motor on, let it get up to speed, shut it off - and stick the diamond stone onto the commutator plates as the motor is winding down... then repeat a whole bunch of times until the arcing goes away.

Hope this was helpful...

~Fred

 

[kc_kirby]

More questions....

Thanks Fred for your response, that does help. I still am a little confused as to what products to actually buy. I have a Hesco catolog and there are 3 different "sections" for commutator cleaners. I'm not sure which are the one's I want. It doesn't look like they have the kind you had at the convention. They all look like square sticks and not actually stone shaped. I have also looked on the web and found a few sites, but again, I'm not sure what exactly I am looking for. If someone could help me pick out the brand/style of cleaning stones I would really appreciate it.

 

[kc_kirby]

See last reply

Can anyone help me with my questions? And another question, Can you use Electrical Contact Cleaner to remove the carbon deposits from the commutator?

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Hi Chad-

I tried looking for the stones in Hesco's online catalog... I couldn't find them.

The stones you need, do in fact start as long, square sticks. The brown one that I first used to get the old carbon deposit off of the armature mine was just well used and mis-shapen.

The white stone i had was the last one I used, and that's the one that you use to actually seat the carbon brushes on the armature--if there is excessive arcing.

After doing some looking around online, there also seems to be a much harder grinding stone that can be used to resurface an armature if the carbon brushes have worn an excessive groove in the armature.

Here's the rubber/plastic bonded stone that I use first:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Here are the diamond ones:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Here's the grinding stone - I don't have these and have never used them:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Here's the diddy I found about about the grinding stones:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Hope that helps...

And I've not ever used electrical contact cleaner on a commutator.

~Fred

 

[kc_kirby]

Thank you Fred!

Thanks Fred, that helps a bunch. I had found that info you posted, I just wasn't sure what to get, there are so many choices.

Chad