Where oh where to find motor brushes?

[Jeff7]

Alright, so I've got a Hios ACL-20 electric screwdriver here, and one of the motor brushes is gone. And the cap that keeps it in place has been broken off.
Motor brush in question.

I found some of these screwdrivers for sale online (well, their newer brethren), and they say "External brushes for easy replacement!" but there doesn't seem to be any mention of where to buy these wonderful brushes.
I looked around at a few sites that sell brushes, but they want you to have a part number handy, or at least the motor brand. The motor inside this screwdriver is labeled only with "003", +/- on the terminals, and nothing else.

How the heck do I get a replacement brush for this thing?
The brush itself is 3/16" square, and as for the other dimension, that's probably a bit shorter than when the thing was new, so it's not likely to be the same as what I'm looking for anyway.

Is there some kind of motor brush Walmart out there which stocks amazing quantities and varieties of searchable motor brushes?
(Incidentally, a number of my search matches on Google were related to anterior cruciate ligament injuries.)


Update: I wound up buying some of these brushes. I had to cut the wire and spring down a bit, as they were much longer than what I was replacing. As for holding it in place without the screw-on cap, I went for something of a brute-force approach: I simply soldered it in place. More details farther down.

 

[PottedMeat]

I'd like to know too. Although I've never had to replace brushes before, a angle grinder I got from harbor freight came with extra brushes.

I would probably find some junk tool, take out a brush and grind it to size.

I've had a brush cap break off too before, I just ground down a piece of acrylic and fastened it in with a screw.

 

[Rubycon]

What kind of shape is the commutator in?

If you killed the brush you must be umm...doing a lot of screwing!

 

[Jeff7]

:awe:

How big is it?

The bigger question is what kind of shape is the commutator in?

The brush itself is 3/16" square on the base, like my post says.

The commutator.....no idea. It's not all that old. The whole driver has just been abused a bit. You know, dropped a few times, and so on. The first brush only "went" because it fell out, and I'd imagine, got swept up at the end of the day.

If you killed the brush you must be umm...doing a lot of screwing!

Hey, who doesn't enjoy going down on a healthy brush, for a nice session of commutator...lingus....yeah that just doesn't work.

 

[Rubycon]

Haha so it's MIA and you need another.

You'd be surprised how tolerant those universal DC motors are and what you can use as a brush! It will spark a LOT more and pit the commutator fast but you probably aren't screwing that much or hard.

(just don't use it around flammables or people farting a lot!)

 

[Jeff7]

Haha so it's MIA and you need another.

You'd be surprised how tolerant those universal DC motors are and what you can use as a brush! It will spark a LOT more and pit the commutator fast but you probably aren't screwing that much or hard.

Well, it is being used in a somewhat industrial environment.

(just don't use it around flammables or people farting a lot!)

I don't know about that either, it's going out in the shop, so that could be a problem too.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Ha, this brings back fond memories of fixing the hot neighbor girls' blender back in freshman year... brushes were all dirty but they were there at least. Bit of cleaning and good as new! If one's missing, who knows; maybe pull one out of another old motor and hack it in there?

 

[Howard]

Cut your own brushes?

 

[Jeff7]

Ha, this brings back fond memories of fixing the hot neighbor girls' blender back in freshman year... brushes were all dirty but they were there at least. Bit of cleaning and good as new! If one's missing, who knows; maybe pull one out of another old motor and hack it in there?

My concern is the metal tab on the other end - it's shaped to fit over a holder to keep it from moving too much.
This one looks just about perfect, except the metal tab opposite the brush appears to be round, and not bent/flanged like the one I need.

Cut your own brushes?

Got nooooo idea what I'd be doing.

 

[Rubycon]

Have you ever hacked up a dry cell battery before?

Actually now that I think about it (this goes along the lines of you making a batt pack for a drill about a year ago!)...

Why not just scrap the motor altogether and use a small polyphase induction motor and build a miniature cycloconverter drive to maintain torque and regulate speed? It would be a fun project!

 

[Jeff7]

Have you ever hacked up a dry cell battery before?

Many years ago, yeah.

Actually now that I think about it (this goes along the lines of you making a batt pack for a drill about a year ago!)...

Why not just scrap the motor altogether and use a small polyphase induction motor and build a miniature cycloconverter drive to maintain torque and regulate speed? It would be a fun project!

Well...um.....right. I'll uh, get right on that. Right after figuring out what the heck a cycloconverter is.

In any case, this thing's some kind of special torque-limited driver, I believe, and I think a new one would run more than $500. Why, I don't know. Maybe just because it's a low volume thing? But then I haven't taken apart the gearbox, mainly because I'm wary of various spring-loaded components flying out of place, impossible to get back together.
Other than that, it looks like a simple DC motor hooked to a switching DC supply.


Edit, on cycloconverters:

Mostof these cycloconverters have a high power output – in the order a few megawatts – and silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs) are used in these circuits.

Yeah, I think that much power would be a wee bit more than I'd be after, particularly for the people who would be using those watts.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Perhaps a bit of super glue to keep it from moving?

 

[Rubycon]

Edit, on cycloconverters:
Yeah, I think that much power would be a wee bit more than I'd be after, particularly for the people who would be using those watts.

Hey I said miniature!

Mine are 20MW continuous each. Of course you're just screwing around we have to push 92 kilotons up to 29 mph through the ocean.

 

[Jeff7]

Perhaps a bit of super glue to keep it from moving?

I'm not sure that this location is really conducive to supergluing - and I don't know if adhesives will stick to this kind of plastic.

Hey I said miniature!

Oh yeah, well, that changes everything.

Mine are 20MW continuous each. Of course you're just screwing around we have to push 92 kilotons up to 29 mph through the ocean.

Um, yeah....I've got to drive nuts onto 8-32 screws. But they're like, totally awesome stainless steel nuts!

 

[Paperdoc]

I solved this kind of problem once by going to a auto parts repair shop that specializes in rebuilding and repairing starters and generators. Alternatively, try calling shops that rebuild electric motors, but most of them deal only in larger motors and brushes. In my case the brushes I got were a little too big, and I just ground them down with a small grinder - in a pinch, a file might do that job, too.

 

[LTC8K6]

McMaster-Carr

 

[Jeff7]

It's looking like the bigger issue is going to be that cap that fits over the brush, otherwise there's nothing to hold it in place.
Alternative: Just solder the damn thing in place.


McMaster-Carr: Their selection of brushes is quite small.
I sent some inquiries to a few other places that have something that's close to what I need; hopefully they respond with something. If not, well, I guess I'll have to head to a hardware store and get something that looks reasonably close, sand it to size, and hope it works.

 

[Rubycon]

It's looking like the bigger issue is going to be that cap that fits over the brush, otherwise there's nothing to hold it in place.
Alternative: Just solder the damn thing in place.


McMaster-Carr: Their selection of brushes is quite small.
I sent some inquiries to a few other places that have something that's close to what I need; hopefully they respond with something. If not, well, I guess I'll have to head to a hardware store and get something that looks reasonably close, sand it to size, and hope it works.

Yeah you will need to brush up on your honing skills.

 

[ebaycj]

Alright, so I've got a Hios ACL-20 electric screwdriver here, and one of the motor brushes is gone. And the cap that keeps it in place has been broken off.
Motor brush in question.

I found some of these screwdrivers for sale online (well, their newer brethren), and they say "External brushes for easy replacement!" but there doesn't seem to be any mention of where to buy these wonderful brushes.
I looked around at a few sites that sell brushes, but they want you to have a part number handy, or at least the motor brand. The motor inside this screwdriver is labeled only with "003", +/- on the terminals, and nothing else.

How the heck do I get a replacement brush for this thing?
The brush itself is 3/16" square, and as for the other dimension, that's probably a bit shorter than when the thing was new, so it's not likely to be the same as what I'm looking for anyway.

Is there some kind of motor brush Walmart out there which stocks amazing quantities and varieties of searchable motor brushes?
(Incidentally, a number of my search matches on Google were related to anterior cruciate ligament injuries.)

You could try by contacting the manufacturer, here:
http://www.ansontools.com/hios/

 

[Jeff7]

You could try by contacting the manufacturer, here:
http://www.ansontools.com/hios/

Already did that. Still waiting for a response.

I figured I'd come here though too, as most companies don't believe in responding to e-mails from customers seeking to buy something from them.

 

[Colt45]

oldschool hardware store, if you still have one.

 

[bruceb]

Suprisingly, Lowes carries a lot of odd ball parts. Check in the hardware aisle bins.
If not, then your local Yellow Pages or Business to Business pages to find an Electric Motor Service shop. They are just about in every major city and they things like bearings and complete motor rebuilds. They can get it, if they don't stock the right one. Also, check with a shop that does DeWalt service as the part may be similar

 

[JJ650]

Try here:

http://hios.com/EN/product/retrieveProduct.php?category_id=208

I didn't see your specific model there but hopefully that motor brush is similar and fit what you have. You may want to email/call the US rep for the part.

By the way, I think the part # is : HI-#48acl20

 

[Jeff7]

Figured I'd update this thread....

Try here:

http://hios.com/EN/product/retrieveProduct.php?category_id=208

I didn't see your specific model there but hopefully that motor brush is similar and fit what you have. You may want to email/call the US rep for the part.

By the way, I think the part # is : HI-#48acl20

Hm, cool, I'll check that out for the future.

In the meantime, I did end up buying some of these brushes I'd linked to earlier. I had to cut the wire and spring down a bit, as they were much longer than what I was replacing. As for holding it in place without the screw-on cap, I went for something of a brute-force approach: I simply soldered it in place.

The screwdriver now works....just in time for them to bring me another one from a different facility, which is currently being held together by a rather copious amount of masking tape, as is its power supply. It looks like it's been dropped a few times.
Out of an airplane.
Into the path of a combine.

 

[Rubycon]

dropped a few times.
Out of an airplane.

Told you airplanes were bad luck. Anything that flies. Helicopters are the worst. If there was a such thing as Satan he would have rotary wings. :twisted: