Yesterday my team was cleaning up our tool boxes and general cleaning when we found this and have no clue what it is, it appears to have graphite on the end, none of the mentors or anyone else knows what it is, or what it is for. Any help would be appreciated.
http://s11.postimage.org/57mxa5f27/2011_12_09_16_23_28.jpg](http://postimage.org/image/57mxa5f27/)
Those appear to be brushes for an electric motor. The graphite is soft and rides against a copper ring on the commutator (the spinning center shaft) to transfer electricity to the copper windings that generate the magnetic field that makes it turn.
Those are brushes for a DC motor. Judging by the size I’m willing to bet they came with a piece of equipment that you have in your shop like a large drill or a smaller saw. The rectangular pieces are the contacts that will touch the commutator to send electricity into the armature to make the motor spin. If you aren’t familiar you can check out how they work here: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/motor1.htm
Definitely motor brushes. I suggest that finding out if you still have the motor that they go to. Brushes like these usually are for power tools, or some other motorized appliance or device that would be expected to last a fairly long amount of time, and thus require replacement brushes. If you find it, store the brushes so that the motor and brushes are kept together in case you need them.
It can be pretty hard to put brushes back into motors. I’ve tried, with very little success, on brush magnets similar to those. You have to place the brushes pretty precisely for them to work properly. And getting them to stay still long enough for something to hold them in place is darn near impossible with those springs.
The motor I tried on was an R/C engine starter motor.
I’ve had no trouble replacing brushes in RC car motors and power tools, except for a cheap angle grinder on which the brush holder melted and I couldn’t get it out. But on that particular tool, replacement brushes cost more than I paid for the whole thing.
First glance they remind me of brushes for an Astro Cobalt Rc plane motor. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they go to a standard drill motor.
Many motors that allow you to change brushes will actually have two plastic screw covers in the case of the motor. You simply remove the covers and the old brushes pull out. Brushes are not exclusive to DC motors. Series wound AC motors like the type used in drills, saws, vacuums, etc. all have a brush assembly. When my daughter spent a year or two at Dairy Queen, I replaced a lot of brushes in the Blizzard machines for the owners. What a pain to work on and they ate brushes about every six to eight months depending on the time of year so I had them buy them at a dozen pair at a time. I would classify the Blizzard machine as severe duty motor use. Hard starts with a lot of ice cream in the cup, hits on the side of the stainless steel rings of the mix cup and a lot of start/stop since they are controlled by foot switch.
Your brushes are much smaller so I would guess at a hand drill or maybe a multi speed fan.
Those brushes might have come from one of the drill motors that were included in the FRC kit of parts in 2003 and earlier seasons. Based on your team number, that would have been your team’s rookie year. Many drill motors were damaged while students and mentors struggled with the tricky assembly required to use the plastic mounting brackets that were provided in the kit.
Thank you all very much this has helped a lot.
HELLOOooooo from the North East :yikes:
Great job all, on the brushes Glad you could fix the DQ machine AL. I love DQ its the best, been going to them a LOOOOOOng time. Good luck to all of the great teams in first for 2012. I have been in FIRST since 96 from back in the day, and lucky to still have my little fingers still in it, all of the students and older people learn so much from this program… MOE ::ouch::
they look almost exactly like the brushes from a wood router I took apart for a school project. I would look for a similarly sized universal motor, they are commonly used for hand-held or lightweight/portable power tools, like miter saws, reciprocating saws (sawzalls), drills, etc.
larger, stationary power tools, and a few portable ones, use brushless induction motors, which produce more torque at lower speeds, but are heavier, larger, and more expensive.
