The fan that I use the most in my office/3rd bedroom
seems to seize up regularly and then needs to be taken
apart so I can drip some 3-in-one onto the bearings.

Normally I have to do this every year, but this year
I have done it twice.

I ran it without the cover to allow the oil to soak
in well and noticed that the motor windings get too
hot to touch. The heat then conducts along the
shaft which is also hot, which is why the bearings
are drying out I guess.

Is this normal ?. Is it the downside of a cheap
desktop fan ?. If so I might bite the bullet and
get one of those expensive Dyson fans (if I could
be certain that it would last). Or is there a
better oil that is more heat resistant ?.

It's a 2 speed fan. Not sure how the slow speed is
activated. Does it engage different windings or is
there a resistor somewhere ?

Andrew

Firstly, these are probably Oilite bearings, and that means when all the oil
leaches out they are basically useless. I had a Morphy Richards fan heater
that did this, and oil as you say is only a short term fix. Unless you can
knock out the bearings and get some new ones in then its probably junk. The
windings do run hot in induction motors. The speed is controlled by
reconfiguring the windings and their phase, its probably a shadowpole
induction motore, similar to the sort you used to see on record changers.
Dysan, well they are quieter and you do pay a premium though. I'm not
convinced they are really any better than a traditional fan myself, but
there is no visible fan to get dirty and need a clean I guess.
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Andrew" <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:uckcms$26ejv$1@dont-email.me...
> The fan that I use the most in my office/3rd bedroom
> seems to seize up regularly and then needs to be taken
> apart so I can drip some 3-in-one onto the bearings.
>
> Normally I have to do this every year, but this year
> I have done it twice.
>
> I ran it without the cover to allow the oil to soak
> in well and noticed that the motor windings get too
> hot to touch. The heat then conducts along the
> shaft which is also hot, which is why the bearings
> are drying out I guess.
>
> Is this normal ?. Is it the downside of a cheap
> desktop fan ?. If so I might bite the bullet and
> get one of those expensive Dyson fans (if I could
> be certain that it would last). Or is there a
> better oil that is more heat resistant ?.
>
> It's a 2 speed fan. Not sure how the slow speed is
> activated. Does it engage different windings or is
> there a resistor somewhere ?
>
> Andrew
>

On 8/29/2023 5:10 AM, Andrew wrote:
> The fan that I use the most in my office/3rd bedroom
> seems to seize up regularly and then needs to be taken
> apart so I can drip some 3-in-one onto the bearings.
>
> Normally I have to do this every year, but this year
> I have done it twice.
>
> I ran it without the cover to allow the oil to soak
> in well and noticed that the motor windings get too
> hot to touch. The heat then conducts along the
> shaft which is also hot, which is why the bearings
> are drying out I guess.
>
> Is this normal ?. Is it the downside of a cheap
> desktop fan ?. If so I might bite the bullet and
> get one of those expensive Dyson fans (if I could
> be certain that it would last). Or is there a
> better oil that is more heat resistant ?.
>
> It's a 2 speed fan. Not sure how the slow speed is
> activated. Does it engage different windings or is
> there a resistor somewhere ?
>
> Andrew
>

My fan takes a grease kit, and it needs a bit of a stir
right now, as the gear box is warming up (signs of friction).

The place that sells replacement parts for electric lawn mowers,
had grease kits, and they would sell whatever was on the
market at the time. ("Small appliance grease kit").
This means some of the grease was very nice, and some was
"cheap shit". Doesn't matter once the lid is screwed down
and you can't see it.

Motor speed can be done with just windings. I have one motor
here with a proposed four speed windings, but two of those
speeds would be too low for purpose.

If they were to do motor speed with a resistor, it would kick
off some amount of heat, which you would notice. Using a
resistor is a method from the past. It's not the notion
of "efficiency" when you're caught doing that.

My desktop fan uses 35W of lekky, just as a reference for
whatever you're driving. The shaft has visible wear on it,
so it cannot last forever now. It's probably been used
on a daily basis, for 30 years or so.

The plastic on the fan, broke, so I had to bodge a DIY
solution to continue using the fan. So now it has a wooden
base, and wooden vertical support, and just the motor
cover plastic remains of the plastic bit.

When a device uses oil, the oil spigot has a wick down
the shaft, those need oil roughly yearly. If an electric
motor runs blazing hot (some do), they can run hot enough
to actually burn up the cotton wick (now the reservoir
has no "capacity"), and then the motor needs *weekly*
applications of oil. This is why a grease bearing is so much
nicer. You just run it for a number of years, until you
can feel heat, and it needs to be re-packed.

Even my electric lawn mower, needed the gear box repacked.
I was sharpening the blade one day, and noticed an abnormal
amount of rotational friction. And the mower was a lot
happier after being repacked. I bet not many in the audience
have used an electric lawn mower long enough, to need a repack :-)

One thing to know about grease, is biological things like to
grow in grease. The result can be quite unsavory. This is
why, if dipping your hands in a grease bucket, you have to be
careful to not transfer something back into the grease, that likes
to eat grease for lunch :-) It's just the smell that will
bother you. Gross. So when dipping stuff out of buckets,
don't transfer some residue back into the bucket, for fear
of introducing biologicals. I even had that happen to a small
container of hand cleanser.

Paul

On Tue, 29 Aug 2023 13:18:57 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
>Firstly, these are probably Oilite bearings, and that means when all the oil
>leaches out they are basically useless. I had a Morphy Richards fan heater
>that did this, and oil as you say is only a short term fix. Unless you can
>knock out the bearings and get some new ones in then its probably junk. The
>windings do run hot in induction motors. The speed is controlled by
>reconfiguring the windings and their phase, its probably a shadowpole
>induction motore, similar to the sort you used to see on record changers.
>Dysan, well they are quieter and you do pay a premium though. I'm not
>convinced they are really any better than a traditional fan myself, but
>there is no visible fan to get dirty and need a clean I guess.
> Brian
I was able to get more use from oilite bearings in a fan. I balanced a
soldering iron tip on the bearing with the help of a retort clamp,
with the motor shaft vertical, then oiled the bearing several times
allowing the oil to sink in, hopefully into the oilite pores.
--
Dave W

On Tuesday, 29 August 2023 at 13:19:04 UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Firstly, these are probably Oilite bearings, and that means when all the oil
> leaches out they are basically useless. I had a Morphy Richards fan heater
> that did this, and oil as you say is only a short term fix. Unless you can
> knock out the bearings and get some new ones in then its probably junk. The
> windings do run hot in induction motors. The speed is controlled by
> reconfiguring the windings and their phase, its probably a shadowpole
> induction motore, similar to the sort you used to see on record changers.
> Dysan, well they are quieter and you do pay a premium though. I'm not
> convinced they are really any better than a traditional fan myself, but
> there is no visible fan to get dirty and need a clean I guess.
> Brian
>
> --
>
> --:
> This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
> The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
> bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
> Blind user, so no pictures please
> Note this Signature is meaningless.!
> "Andrew" <Andr...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:uckcms$26ejv$1...@dont-email.me...
> > The fan that I use the most in my office/3rd bedroom
> > seems to seize up regularly and then needs to be taken
> > apart so I can drip some 3-in-one onto the bearings.
> >
> > Normally I have to do this every year, but this year
> > I have done it twice.
> >
> > I ran it without the cover to allow the oil to soak
> > in well and noticed that the motor windings get too
> > hot to touch. The heat then conducts along the
> > shaft which is also hot, which is why the bearings
> > are drying out I guess.
> >
> > Is this normal ?. Is it the downside of a cheap
> > desktop fan ?. If so I might bite the bullet and
> > get one of those expensive Dyson fans (if I could
> > be certain that it would last). Or is there a
> > better oil that is more heat resistant ?.
> >
> > It's a 2 speed fan. Not sure how the slow speed is
> > activated. Does it engage different windings or is
> > there a resistor somewhere ?
> >
> > Andrew
> >
Geoff Drage aka Raden used to tell us WD and 3 in 1 were not really suitable for oilite bearing bushes. From memory he recommended a product called Anduril (?) and used it for boiler fan motors he reconditioned.

I'm sure I replied to this already. Chances are these are oilite bearings
that have run dry, oiling is only a temp fix, you either need new iolite
bearings or chuck it away and buy a new fan. I had a Morphy Richards fan
heater with these bearings, and it would only run for a few weeks after the
oil had gone from the material of the bearings and you oiled them. The heat
evaporated the oil.
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Andrew" <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:uckcms$26ejv$1@dont-email.me...
> The fan that I use the most in my office/3rd bedroom
> seems to seize up regularly and then needs to be taken
> apart so I can drip some 3-in-one onto the bearings.
>
> Normally I have to do this every year, but this year
> I have done it twice.
>
> I ran it without the cover to allow the oil to soak
> in well and noticed that the motor windings get too
> hot to touch. The heat then conducts along the
> shaft which is also hot, which is why the bearings
> are drying out I guess.
>
> Is this normal ?. Is it the downside of a cheap
> desktop fan ?. If so I might bite the bullet and
> get one of those expensive Dyson fans (if I could
> be certain that it would last). Or is there a
> better oil that is more heat resistant ?.
>
> It's a 2 speed fan. Not sure how the slow speed is
> activated. Does it engage different windings or is
> there a resistor somewhere ?
>
> Andrew
>

>> Brian
>
>I was able to get more use from oilite bearings in a fan. I balanced a
>soldering iron tip on the bearing with the help of a retort clamp,
>with the motor shaft vertical, then oiled the bearing several times
>allowing the oil to sink in, hopefully into the oilite pores.

Was the heat intended to reduce the viscosity of the oil or impart
differential expansion of the bearing?

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

On 02/09/2023 14:28, Graham. wrote:
>
>
>>> Brian
>>
>> I was able to get more use from oilite bearings in a fan. I balanced a
>> soldering iron tip on the bearing with the help of a retort clamp,
>> with the motor shaft vertical, then oiled the bearing several times
>> allowing the oil to sink in, hopefully into the oilite pores.
>
>
>
> Was the heat intended to reduce the viscosity of the oil or impart
> differential expansion of the bearing?
>
Probably to melt the old crud out

--
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