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Even though brushed motors are a thing of the past, I got a little satisfaction out of tinkering with one tonight. I never had money for a comm lathe back when I raced carpet, so this was all new to me.

I have a 27T Holmes Hobbies motor in my Tamiya crawler that was running poorly and cutting out. I tore it apart and the comm was pretty nasty.

I broke out the old Magic/Trinity Comm Machine that I bought from a member years ago and gave it a whirl. It uses an abrasive emery cloth wheel instead of a fancy bit like most others, but it got the job done just fine.

After some cleaning, oiling and new brushes, it seems to run just like when it was new.

That's cool! I will get there myself someday...
I also couldn't afford a lathe BITD, bought one a couple years ago and have yet to use it.

Brushed motors are way cooler than brushless!

my comm lathe back in the day was attaching a motor to my dremel, pulling the brushes, turning on the dremel, and stuffing an edge comm stick in the brush hood.

i still do it like that today.

It's good fun taking old brushed motors and breathing new life into them. There's something really satisfying about truing comms. I was in the same boat years ago, I couldn't afford a comm lathe. Two years ago I bought a brand new Xipp Super Lathe 3 for $50. They're well worth the money if you still run rebuildable brushed motors.

Would like to see some photos of the tools, before and after sort of thing.

deangaffney wrote:Would like to see some photos of the tools, before and after sort of thing.

I'll try to post some pics of my Magic machine. I was going to snap some before and after pics of my comm but my crawler was really pissing me off.

scr8p wrote:my comm lathe back in the day was attaching a motor to my dremel, pulling the brushes, turning on the dremel, and stuffing an edge comm stick in the brush hood.

i still do it like that today.

I think we've all done this at one stage. Just don't spin it up with the green polishing stick or your motor will run worse than before. Red and blue sticks are ok but only spin the green one by hand.