My casemod has come to a standstill recently. I'm using the li-ion battery powered dremel and I used to get a good hour or so of constant work on a full charge. But the last couple of weeks, after only ten minutes, the dremel gets very hot, almost too hot to hold, and shuts off contsantly. The battery seems to be holding a charge fine and the heat led me to believe its the motor, so I opened it up and found a lot of dust inside and cleaned it out. Unfortunately it didnt seem to help and the dremel continued to overheat and started to make a smell until today when it started smoking a little! As far as I know, I dont think my dremel model accepts the replacement motor. So is it dying? Is there anything I can do to save it? Id hate to buy a knew one, Ive only had this one for a year! Maybe I'll try cleaning it more thoroughly with a can of air. Anyone have any other suggestions? I wont be using it much more if it starts smoking again.
hmm... see, im a software guy and dont really know much about motors and bearings (I dont even know what you mean by brushes ). dont suppose you know a link to a tutorial or anything on lubrication? (of motors i mean )
Thats why ya gotta get the corded version! Full power, ALL the time. But yeah, I'd try cleaning the brushes and then lubing them up.. Otherwise a new corded one would probly be the price of a battery for that one?
The brushes are the part of a motor that relay electricity to the motor. The brushes brush against a commutator that rotates with the coils of a motor. Without brushes the DC motor would only turn 180 degrees and stop. The thing with the commutator is it also switches the circuit as it turns. After 180 degrees of turn the commutator reverses the polarity of the current and the motor can do another 180 degree turn. This is done by brushes touching conductive plates around the commutator. This can be done edlessly as long as the motor has power and the brushes touch the commutator. Brushes are usually made of carbon because it has a relatively long life and good conductive properties. But they do get worn out if used. Here are a few links about changing the brushes: http://www.sherline.com/DCbrush.htm http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=126994
Probably poor brush contact fair amoutn of arcing and heat. Plus that dust is pretty bad for the motor. But ya... actually most motors have many more comm spots than 2 for smoother action and more torque.
There should be two round caps on the body with slots on them. unscrew them to get the brushes. Dremmel advetise that one set of brushes last 50 (short) hours.
oh. by the way. Don't lube the brushes.. just the bearings. Brushes tend to dissolve if they get wet.
