Re: (ET) Fall=Welding time!

[Dean Stuckmann <dstuckmann icloud com>]

I had an experience with a bent motor shaft many years ago with one of the 
skinny motors. I straightened it out, verifying the process by checking it 
in a lathe. 

Things seemed ok for a while but some of the wobble came back. I don't 
recall hitting anything else with so I’m assuming that the shaft had some 
metal memory of the bend. Just my thought. 

Personally I would replace the motor or armature as soon as you can as the 
vibration is tough on bearings and could cause the magnet to break free. 

With that in mind I purchased a very good blade balancer. 
https://www.magna-matic-direct.com/products/mag-1000-balancing-instrument.html
 
I couldn’t believe how much quieter the deck got after I used it. Not 
cheap but well worth it in my opinion. 

Good luck!

Take care,
Dean

> On Nov 14, 2021, at 12:36 PM, Chris Zach via Elec-trak <elec-trak cosmos 
> phy tufts edu> wrote:
> 
> Took the E20 out yesterday to start on the leaves. The process is deck, 
> tractor, vacuum, trailer with very big bag. The right deck motor has a 
> slight axle wobble but it wasn't the end of the world. So off we went.
> 
> Then I noticed it was vibrating a *lot* more so I decided to swap out 
> the armature. Not a biggie, just used a spare I had, took the top off 
> the motor, dropped the armature through the bottom leaving the casing 
> and magnets on, then put it all together. Fired it up, noticed it was 
> still vibrating a bit, then saw another problem.
> 
> The bracker that goes around the mower motor to hold it on the deck had 
> broken off in one spot. *Great*. The second spot had a crack in it right 
> by a mounting bolt, but the first one was broken off in two places.
> 
> Normally I would pull the motor but these are getting rare. So out came 
> the wire brush to clean up the edges and the collar on the motor, and 
> out came the Elec-Trak welder, also known as the "glue gun".
> 
> The welder is pretty good, but you're doing DC stick welding so it is a 
> bit tricky. Went to get my helmet and found that my good helmet (the 
> auto-dimming one) was missing, leaving me with the stupid standard 
> helmet. Which is a pain because you can't see *ANYTHING* until you 
> strike the weld, usually in the wrong location.
> 
> So out came the 300 watt portable Halogen light which gives me a very 
> very dim view of the work when I shine it right on the spot to be 
> welded. Stuck some arcs, got used to it, and happily tack welded the 
> flange part back on.
> 
> That should hold for leaf season, but once I'm done with that I'm going 
> to put the deck up for repairs and properly re-weld it. Glad to have the 
> welder, it comes in *very* handy for problem projects like this.
> 
> Question: Can a motor repair shop straighten a bent motor shaft? Should 
> I pull the bearing or will they do that?
> 
> C
> 
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