STATOR AND ROTOR CLEANING??

[Roger Borg]

How should I remove some surface rust on this stator without damaging its functionality?

Also, what is the best method to clean the rotor? Is plain old wd40 fine to remove dirt and grime on this part?

Thanks...

[Mark Olson]

Honestly, if the coils on the stator are electrically good, the less you mess with them, the better. If you must, odorless mineral spirits and a toothbrush, followed by electrical cleaner spray from the auto parts store. Do not saturate the coils with anything (except insulating varnish). Again, less is better. Insulating varnish never hurts after you clean it up a bit.

[Lane Shirey]

CRC Lectra Clean. 

[Doug Wendel]

For the rotor, I usually mask the shafts and give it a low pressure media blasting.  Then a light wire wheel brush on the outside of the laminates to make shiny. Then mask the rotor and laminate exterior and spray black.  

For the stator, use CDC Lectramotive parts cleaner from the auto parts store.  I clean my stators using the cleaner in a large mixing bowel and use a cheap paint brush to gently brush the coils and reuse the cleaner as it accumulates in the bowl.  If really dirty this can require several cycles to get out the oil gunk and the spray to run somewhat clear.  Then I blow out and dry.  Then varnish (sometimes several coats) and bake at low temp or let dry a few days.

Some pics of recent fans—

Edited October 29, 2022 by Doug Wendel

[Roger Borg]

7 hours ago, Chris Campbell said:

GE pancake?

You could pull the fields from stator and rewrap. While fields removed soak in evapo rust. Once clean dry and spray varnish insulator before slipping fields back on.

You can leave copper rings on stator while soaking or pull in needed to slip off field coils

Yes, a pancake.

If I were to go this route, how do the windings get removed? Do the copper pieces slide out, and that releases the windings so they can be removed?

[Roger Borg]

3 hours ago, Mark Olson said:

Honestly, if the coils on the stator are electrically good, the less you mess with them, the better. If you must, odorless mineral spirits and a toothbrush, followed by electrical cleaner spray from the auto parts store. Do not saturate the coils with anything (except insulating varnish). Again, less is better. Insulating varnish never hurts after you clean it up a bit.

I have not yet taken readings, but it was running fine as per video from seller, so I have no reason to question its operability.

More to the point, I guess the question I'm wondering is what effect rust has on the laminations and workings of the motor.

If it does indeed work fine in it's current state, what would I gain by trying to remove the rust? Would I be risking damage only to pretty it up, or is the rust problematic to its operation in the long or short term?

[Mark Olson]

Light , not scaly, rust is not detrimental to magnetic laminates, in fact, it helps to electrically insulate the laminates from each other, which is a good thing.

[Roger Borg]

8 hours ago, Chris Campbell said:

CRC Lectra Clean/ CDC even mineral spirits will rid oil and grime. Varnish is an insulator. Neither will remove rust.  I suggested the evaporust to remove the rust by simply soaking the stator. I cant tell from photo but is the rust surface only or does it eat away any laminates? If deep rust you may not have as much stator as you started with.

The copper rings will come off. It has been a long time since did anything GE.

If you pull the field coils mark them 1-4. Each coil has power that will run opposite creating NSNS fields. The copper acts like a start nudging rotor until alternating fields kicks it in motion. This is a shaded pole motor.

 

 

 

 

I will get better pics on Monday and repost. Hard to recall the extent of the rust.

I do have evaporust on hand if needed.

Thanks all, have a nice weekend...