loathar wrote:It's a Mantua heavy Mikado. I already tried the shims. Didn't really help. It's got a big silver rivet holding the block magnet to the frame. I really don't want to mess with drilling it out. It might fetch something on E Bay if I don't destroy it. I think it's the PM 1. It runs good enough if I keep it on flat track.
loathar wrote:There's one problem that I don't think I can over come though. It runs great on flat track. It runs great going up a grade. But a transition from flat to grade or a curve on a grade REALLY draws the amps and drastically slows the train down for a few seconds. It then recovers and runs fine, but it's annoying. I think it's just the nature of the motor. Mine runs a lot better in reverse than forward too! I'll still fiddle around with it a bit more.$45 for a flywheel/can motor ain't in the budget right now.(see-market is killing me thread.)
loathar wrote:I used some neodyne disk magnets I got at Hobby Lobby.(had them laying around) About 1/4" dia. and 1/8" thick. This motor is riveted together so I just stuck the magnets to the outside of the frame as close to the armature as I could get. I could run the motor with the amp meter attached and add or subtract magnets or move them around and see the effects on the meter in real time. I reached a point where more magnets raised the amp draw and decreased performance. I found 3 worked good. Two on top and one on the bottom. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll post some pics.I cleaned and lubed everything and re-assembled it tonight. It ran better. Low speed was a lot better. If I had to assign a # to it, I'd say it improved 10%-15%. Still not flywheel/can motor performance, but it IS an improvement.
I used some neodyne disk magnets I got at Hobby Lobby.(had them laying around) About 1/4" dia. and 1/8" thick. This motor is riveted together so I just stuck the magnets to the outside of the frame as close to the armature as I could get. I could run the motor with the amp meter attached and add or subtract magnets or move them around and see the effects on the meter in real time. I reached a point where more magnets raised the amp draw and decreased performance. I found 3 worked good. Two on top and one on the bottom. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll post some pics.
I cleaned and lubed everything and re-assembled it tonight. It ran better. Low speed was a lot better. If I had to assign a # to it, I'd say it improved 10%-15%. Still not flywheel/can motor performance, but it IS an improvement.
loathar wrote:Funny you should post this now. I just did that with a Mantua open frame last night and it worked great! Took the start up from .44amps down to .30amps and the no load full speed from .52 down to around .40. Feels stronger and smoother too. I'm going to reinstall the motor tonight. I'll post again tonight about any performance improvements it has.Now if I could figure a way to quit it down a little.
Prime, you can use epoxy to glue the magnet segments together, or to the motors. We do that all the time with slot car motors.
JB Weld works great.
You can also use super glue, but it's not as permanent as epoxy.
Rotor
Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often you won't even notice ...