Many years ago I, with the help of a friend who had access to the proper tools/equipment, decided to "blueprint" a couple run-of-the-mill Athearn blue box locos. This involved indicating the armature shaft, turning down the armature and shimming the magnets so that the armature was closer to the magnets. We would fill the commutator segment spaces with bakelite, epoxy in place, turn down the commutator. Installed ball bearings in the end brackets. Took pretty much all the play out of the gears and drive shaft, etc, etc. Basically making all the tolerances much closer.
The result (on DC) was actually quite spectacular. The locos ran much more smoothly, had better pulling power and used less current and had a much lower starting voltage.
With today's motors (which appear to be somewhat improved) and the use of DCC/decoders controlling pretty much every aspect of motor performance, with or without a load, I'm wondering if "blueprinting" would have much, if any effect improving locomotive performance.
Has anyone done this on modern DCC locos? Pros? Cons?
Sounds like an interesting way to spend the day. But good motors are much easier to come by these days, so most people remotor instead of rebuild. There are some of the open-frame motors that can benefit from replacing the magnets with banks of the small rare earth magnets, a useful thing in that you needn't alter the drivetrain.
Generally, higher quality newer motive power has motors that are satisfying enough that remotoring is usually not needed.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Back in 1972, I took an Athearn 'Jet' motor and sent it to a slot car motor tune-up shop. They balanced it, turned the commutator, and it did run much better. I also found that if I trued up the commutator, and adjusted the spring tension on the motor brushes - I got the same thing! Motor current was much lower. Cleaning up 'flash' on the gears, adding thrust washers to the worms, and rewiring the electrical pickup did wonders. Oh Yeah, replace the 'sintered iron' wheels with NWSL or Jay Bee n/s wheel sets. All that is now 'standard' on most current models....
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
The only thing I ever done to a BB engine is added stick on weight to the inside top of the shell to kill the shell vibration the source of a lot of the noise.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
How did you put ball bearings in the end brackets? Can you provide more detail on that. I can see some sort of pin bearing like what is in the cap of a driveshaft universal. Must of been tiny
nw2 How did you put ball bearings in the end brackets? Can you provide more detail on that. I can see some sort of pin bearing like what is in the cap of a driveshaft universal. Must of been tiny
Geeeeezzzzzzzzz............
That was 1970-72 (yikes)
From what I remember I used ball bearing assembly that were used in scale slot cars to soop them up, replacing the "self-lubricating" bronze bearings usually used, like in the motor end brackets. I'm pretty sure I just removed the bronze bearings and slipped in a ball bearing assembly of appropriate size to fit the armature shaft. I'm pretty sure the bearing holes in the end brackets surprisingly matched the ball bearing assembly. I may have had to use a little epoxy to hold them in place.