Is my 30 year old Wen polisher waving the white flag???

[crazy charlie]

Fantastic quality polisher .Has served me well over the past 30 years of spring boat polishing.Just my boats so it gets a long vacation after April and May.Smelling a slight burning smell as I used it yesterday.Gonna blow dust out of the motor and hope for the best.Can replace it for $50 so not worth taking apart..??

 

[dingbat]

Can replace it for $50 so not worth taking apart..??

I enjoy “fixing” things.

Nothing hits the trash heap until I’ve torn it down to see if can be fixed for reasonable cost.

If available, a set of brushes is only a couple of bucks

 

[crazy charlie]

Easy to replace them???

 

[dingbat]

Easy to replace them???

Depends upon design. The better quality tools typically provide access to the brushes as a maintenance item.

Even my HF variable speed buffer has brush covers. Typically a “plug” with a slot in the cap

 

[crazy charlie]

So the burning i am smelling are the brushes wearing??

 

[gm280]

So the burning i am smelling are the brushes wearing??

Answer: YES and NO! Brushes can smell, however, I would not wait and open it up now to see if the armature windings OR the field windings are discolored. That is usually the smell problem. If either are discolored, new brushes are not going to fix it. If the brushes are worn to the point that they are gone or almost gone, sure buy a new pair and replace. But you will only know the smell answer after opening it up and seeing. And if you don't know much about such things, post a few pictures on here of both windings and the brushes. Help will pop up as to what to do...

 

[crazy charlie]

News Flash!!! a blast of compressed air has cleared the airways.all good ,no smell at all.Wen lives on!!! I would but another Wen in a hearbeat.also had a Wen electric chainsaw for longer than the polisher .Tennant burt it out trying to help me out when a snow storm took a huge branch down.Huge meaning a 1/2 cord of wood worth.wen lives on !!!

 

[crazy charlie]

well it did stop running next day and the brushes are pretty accessable but looks like a brush retainer is broken so it may be "wave white flag" day unless the retainer is available?? photo 1 is the brush connected to the broken retainer and 2 is motor with right brush removed

 

[crazy charlie]

Replacing brushes on electric motor/polishing wheel

Was about to part with my 30 year old Wen polisher which has served me better than i could have hoped for.Dingbag made a suggestion to check and replace brushes if accessable to try to fix.Turns out that while removing the brush that clearly looked bad the retainer either was already broken or broke while removing.Brushes are available but the retainer??? I dont think so.Anyone know for sure? photo 1 is the brush connected to retainer,photo 2 is the motor with right retainer and brush removed

 

[Old Ironmaker]

And here I initially thought a Wen Polisher was a type of boat we don't see in Canada and I never heard of. I need to get out more often.

 

[crazy charlie]

Too funny!! haha ,I guess proper english would be without a capital P ....polisher

 

[froggy1150]

The polisher I have been using to grind with belonged to my dad from before I was born ..... minimum 55 years old and I think I would pay a electric motor shop to rewind if it got "sick"