John in CR
100 TW
After seeing the condition of the interior of a number of hubmotors used for long periods, especially by the northerners dealing with salty roads, along with the propensity of many in the past year to open motors up for cooling, I'm thinking that any time we open a hub motor for the first time we should put some kind of coating especially on the circumference of the stator. My question is "what coating?"
I've seen some guys swear by certain lubricants. I'm sure they're better than the bare metal of the laminations coming from the factory, I can't see any lubricant lasting for years from a one time coating on bare metal. If we're opening up hubmotors we should be replacing the unknown bearings with good ones, and then as long as we don't push them too hard and damage the motor with heat, there's really no reason not to expect 5 years or a decade of trouble free service. That makes me want to do some kind of paint.
I take it we don't want a steel primer because they include some kind of metal and we definitely don't want to use a coating that conducts electricity from one lamination to another, since that would negate the whole purpose of laminations. We also want a hard and very thin coating, so it doesn't come off during reassembly when the stator often rubs against the rotor magnets while putting it back together.
I have a few motors apart right now, and I'm leaning toward some epoxy spray paint for appliances. It takes 5-7 days to fully cure, but otherwise I can't come up with any detriments. It's very hard without being brittle, it seems to be electrically non-conductive and non-magnetic. Another big plus is that I already have a couple of cans.
Anyone with something better? A conformal coating, another high temp epoxy paint like I've seen on some factory RC stator lams, maybe just some high temp paint used for BBQ's or engines...?
John
I've seen some guys swear by certain lubricants. I'm sure they're better than the bare metal of the laminations coming from the factory, I can't see any lubricant lasting for years from a one time coating on bare metal. If we're opening up hubmotors we should be replacing the unknown bearings with good ones, and then as long as we don't push them too hard and damage the motor with heat, there's really no reason not to expect 5 years or a decade of trouble free service. That makes me want to do some kind of paint.
I take it we don't want a steel primer because they include some kind of metal and we definitely don't want to use a coating that conducts electricity from one lamination to another, since that would negate the whole purpose of laminations. We also want a hard and very thin coating, so it doesn't come off during reassembly when the stator often rubs against the rotor magnets while putting it back together.
I have a few motors apart right now, and I'm leaning toward some epoxy spray paint for appliances. It takes 5-7 days to fully cure, but otherwise I can't come up with any detriments. It's very hard without being brittle, it seems to be electrically non-conductive and non-magnetic. Another big plus is that I already have a couple of cans.
Anyone with something better? A conformal coating, another high temp epoxy paint like I've seen on some factory RC stator lams, maybe just some high temp paint used for BBQ's or engines...?
John
