I'm putting this in the "tool time" forum because I'm not sure where else to put it. There's a similar stick in the "grease" forum, but I'm not sure that grease is the appropriate lubricant here.
I have a Vornado brand fan that I picked up free from the recycling bin at work a few months ago. Plug it in and turn it on...can hear the motor humming, but the fan blade won't turn. Okay, so I take it apart and find that the motor shaft will turn but only if I turn it with a pair of pliers. So I lubricate both bearings (which are not replaceable or even R&R'able that I can tell) with some spray lubricant (BPL corn-based lubricant) and it runs fine. But then a few weeks later, it will get slow and eventually bind up again. So I took the whole thing apart again and lube both bearings, and it spun free. I used it for a few more weeks it bound again. This time, I tried spraying just the front bearing, behind the fan blade. And that freed it up...so it's just a problem with the front bearing. Mind you, when I "spray" the bearing, I'm really just dribbling a small amount of liquid from the straw...just enough to lubricate the bearing itself.
So what's the deal here? Why does it keep binding up? I've used both the BPL bio-based lubricant and actual WD-40, and it binds up with both. It's been about a week since I last applied WD-40, and it's already slowed down enough so that the blade comes to a positive stop after 3-4 seconds after I turn it off. After new lubricant, it'll spin twice as long and may stop and rotate backwards if the heavy part of the blade is up or something like that.
Am I using the wrong product for this application? Should I be using something like a graphite lube? Or am I destined to simply have to remove the blade every month and lube the front bearing?
I have a Vornado brand fan that I picked up free from the recycling bin at work a few months ago. Plug it in and turn it on...can hear the motor humming, but the fan blade won't turn. Okay, so I take it apart and find that the motor shaft will turn but only if I turn it with a pair of pliers. So I lubricate both bearings (which are not replaceable or even R&R'able that I can tell) with some spray lubricant (BPL corn-based lubricant) and it runs fine. But then a few weeks later, it will get slow and eventually bind up again. So I took the whole thing apart again and lube both bearings, and it spun free. I used it for a few more weeks it bound again. This time, I tried spraying just the front bearing, behind the fan blade. And that freed it up...so it's just a problem with the front bearing. Mind you, when I "spray" the bearing, I'm really just dribbling a small amount of liquid from the straw...just enough to lubricate the bearing itself.
So what's the deal here? Why does it keep binding up? I've used both the BPL bio-based lubricant and actual WD-40, and it binds up with both. It's been about a week since I last applied WD-40, and it's already slowed down enough so that the blade comes to a positive stop after 3-4 seconds after I turn it off. After new lubricant, it'll spin twice as long and may stop and rotate backwards if the heavy part of the blade is up or something like that.
Am I using the wrong product for this application? Should I be using something like a graphite lube? Or am I destined to simply have to remove the blade every month and lube the front bearing?