Quote:
Originally Posted by slurryguy
Feel free to do whatever you feel is appropriate.
For what it's worth, my recommendation is to not use any motor that doesn't have a bearing in it's own end plate. I was afraid that this one might have the bearing buried inside the pump, but you can't know for sure until you get the thing apart.
This size of motor is extremely plentiful. This particular motor has given you a good introductory education. You'll probably save time and money by taking another trip to a Lift Salvage Yard and trying to find another ugly rusty treasure. Sometimes the best decisions in life are picking your battles and knowing when to walk away.
Now that you've educated yourself somewhat, you have a much better idea what to look for when scrounging around a salvage yard. The best bargains are the motors with two good bearings, a nice long keyed drive shaft, good brushes, no signs of burnt copper, and lots of disgusting dirt, rust, grime, and grunge. The dirtier and more crappy the general appearance of the motor the cheaper it will be.
It appears to be about a 4.5 incher (+/-). You'd be surpised how many of these size motors can be had for nothing, or almost nothing. Many don't need any new components. They simply need a really good cleaning and maybe a short spin on the lathe for the commutator.
The ugly dirty motors that have all the important internal parts can usually get haggled down to whatever the going rate is for the price of the scrap metal, maybe a little extra just to make it worth the yard owner's time to sell it to you.
That said... your time is yours. If you want to custom machine an end cap with a bearing, be my guest. Be sure to post pictures, it would be fun to see what you come up with.
Best Wishes.
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Close, it's a 5 inch motor
Judging by what you said, I think I'll see what else I can get hold of. This motor will run fine, the only problem is the end cap. If I can't find another, I'll keep working on this one. I've seen an endcap machined for a car starter motor, we used one in our electric drag racer (what a POS that was. The spec said the motor did 2.5k RPM. Ours did 5k! It was stupidly overgeared and the parachute never even opened!).
It was a pretty simple affair to do, and no more complex than an RC car axle or gear holder (done both on a worn out lathe in school, quite a task with that amount of slop and those tolerances). The limiting factor is the cost of aluminium stock, and I think for the price it would be easier to just find another motor, or at least an endcap that will fit. I'll see if I can find some brushes and springs while I'm at it
Thanks for all the input, it's been really helpful! I think I would have just connected it up to a car battery and watched the pretty lights by now otherwise!