# New motor for pillar drill?



## Phil Pascoe (22 Apr 2016)

The motor or rather the bearing in the motor of my Meddings has packed up. The pulley moves easily from side to side as if a bearing has actually broken up. It's not in front of me atm but it's a Newman Elf iirc. Economically it's probably as sensible to replace it as have it fixed - electric motors are not exactly my area of expertise  . Any suggestions? What do I look for in a new motor - permanent capacitor, capacitor start, capacitor run? I really don't know what I'm looking at.
TIA, Phil


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## Racers (22 Apr 2016)

New bearing would be the cheapest way of fixing it, do you have a motor rewind shop near you, they should be able to replace the bearing if you don't fancy doing it yourself.

Pete


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## Monkey Mark (22 Apr 2016)

I'd strip it and have a look. If it's just the bearing then I'm sure you can buy replacements pretty cheap (as long as they are not a very unusual size). Motors can be surprisingly expensive for decent ones.


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## blackrodd (22 Apr 2016)

As above, strip and check if it's worth fitting new bearings and brushes first, keep the original well built motor if possible,
Probably cheaper anyway! Rodders


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## beech1948 (22 Apr 2016)

phil.p,

Its usually the occurance of some personal anxiety about doing this sort of thing which puts people off as well as the needing to learn new things.

Swopping bearings in electric motors is old news. Have a look at owwm.org. Its a US site on which a section called I think Everything Electrical includes many many electric motor bearing replacements. Electric motors are relatively simple things in terms of mechanical bits and pieces....so read a bit, check out the pictures and have a go.

Al


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## sunnybob (22 Apr 2016)

Phil, just do it.

Bearings are peanuts to buy. They are just pressed into the housing, even if you cant rig up a vice type press, a suitable sized round lump of wood and a club hammer will get them out. And they all have identification numbers on them for replacement.
Even if you cant read the numbers theres only 3 measurements involved.
Outer diameter, inner diameter, and thickness.


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## Phil Pascoe (22 Apr 2016)

I took the motor off, and it appears that problem might not be the motor. The slap is between the shaft and the pulley there doesn't appear to be any on the shaft itself. I've tightened up the pulley, but I can't try it atm - there appears to be a switch fault. There was a bad contact before, and now it blows a fuse every time I try it. I gave up because the light was failing, so tomorrow I'll bypass the switch and see what happens. If (as I'm fairly certain) the switch is faulty, I'll look to replace it with something simpler - I can't see why the existing switch is so elaborate anyway, with two offs and two ons.


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## Phil Pascoe (23 Apr 2016)

Sorry about the double up. I'm about to show my ignorance of all things electrical - I'm fairly sure this switch is faulty, so can I replace it with something a little more simple? It's obviously dual purpose, but having two offs and two ons serves me no purpose. I'll wire the motor straight to the socket to find out for sure that it is the switch at fault. I'm fairly sure though as it never did contact very definitely. I suppose a household double pole switch would do, but any suggestions of something a little more professional would be welcome.


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## sunnybob (23 Apr 2016)

Phil, use a No Voltage Release switch (NVR) they are required fitting on all new appliances and are the safest way of switching.
If the power is cut for any reason, the motor will not restart automatically when power is restored. They also have large push panic stop buttons.


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## sunnybob (23 Apr 2016)

as an extra, the NVR switch is wired with live and neutral in, and live and neutral out. Very simple wiring, the safest switch you can buy. DO NOT use a household switch.


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## DTR (23 Apr 2016)

Apart from the safety considerations, the arc that forms across the switch contacts every time you turn the motor off will quickly wear out a household switch. An NVR switch has a snap action contact that minimises the arc, and therefore the wear.


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## ChrisR (25 Apr 2016)

Maybe worth giving (Meddings) a call. 

We had a pre WW2 pillar drill at work, that had the main shaft bearings go, I gave them a call, they could have not been more helpful, plus the parts were still available for our pre (world war II) drill, and at a realistic price.

www.meddings.co.uk

Chris.


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## Phil Pascoe (25 Apr 2016)

Thanks, but this is the motor rather than the drill. I'll give them a call if I have a problem with the drill - it's a mere boy - 1960.


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## heimlaga (30 Apr 2016)

Just for the record and other readers I strongly advice against shifting motors in elderly machines. 
I am sick and tired of otherwise perfectly good machines that turn up with motors that don't fit or don't work properly. Either the RPM is wrong or the frame didn't quite fit the mount so the motor held by a cobbled together motor mount that is neither strong enough nor gives enough movement for tensioning the belt. Motor frames weren't quite standardized in practise until the 1980-ies or 90-ies it seems......... and furthermore most of the motors on the market today are made in China to terribly low standards. Way inferrior to an elderly Brooks or soething like that.
The proper way of fixing a burned out motor on a good quality machine is to rewind it. A proper professional rewind costs roughly the same as a new bog standard Chineese piece of junk. Some more advanced backtreet mechanics rewind their own motors but most of us bring them to a rewinding shop to get it done.

Shifting bearings is easy. If you ever need to do it just drop me a PM and I will walk you through the process. 

Switches are not my field....... daddy usually takes care of them...... but I agree with the others. Don't use a household switch.
Drum swithches rather similar to that one are still used in industry and can be bought new. Are you absolutely sure that the old one is broken?
A proper replacement would be a modern swith unit that would bring the machine up to modern standards.


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## Phil Pascoe (30 Apr 2016)

I suspect it's the switch, but it's been on hold for a few days.


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## Phil Pascoe (25 May 2016)

Sorted. The pulley was moving and it happened to coincide with a switch fault. This was what I used, I just cut a rectangle out of the plate that carried the original switch, four spade connectors a new fuse and away.
No huge mushroom, buy fine for many things.
www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-No-Volt-Switch/ ... olt+switch
£8.59 inc p&p - can't be bad.


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