Parma Death Star brushes....

[dr fabio]

Hi guys, need some feedback on the brushes that are used in parma death stars. I thought I would speed up the break in process and dunk the motor into some distilled water and run at about 4V. Set it going, turned my back to do some other jobs in the shed. Turned back one minute, perhaps 90 seconds later at the very most and the water was black. Stopped the motor and removed it to have a look. Both brushes had worn away to nothing and the springs were resting on the brush hoods!!

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a weird one off or is this a well known thing with Parma brush gear? Wont be breaking in my Parma in water again :o


cheers
dr fabio

[Florida_Slotter]

dr fabio,

Water break in is something that came about as an answer to "Hand Out Motors" that were being used at a lot of the events. The reason it was popular is simple; you could break-in the brushes very quickly and have a decent motor.

There are lots of 'soft' brushes floating around today. I have seen that in most motors that are being run in slot cars. If you put the motor in water at 4 volts, turned the power on and walked away, that was a huge mistake. As soon as the water starts to cloud - it happens very quickly - that is a sign that the brush material is very, very soft.

Typically, I simply radius the brushes with a radius tool, then run the motor for at least 30 minutes at 4 volts. At the end of this time I pull a brush, look at it using a jeweler's eye loop and it if looks like it it fully seater, my break-in is complete. It works very well like that and you will never clog the commutator up with soft brush material rendering the motor useless.

Just my opinion.

[Foamy]