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Run and Start capacitor sizing for small motor

mjk

Titanium
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Location
Wilmington DE USA
I acquired a small sharpener that is basically a dual shaft motor with a grinding wheel on one end and a small gear drive (200/1 ratio) on the other side.
probably from the late 50's made in Germany.

The specs on the motor tag are 3340rpm 160w 1.35a 110v (or 220v)


manufactured by: PFALZ-ELEKTRA KAISERSLAUTERN Typ DG90-60K

I purchased knowing it had a starting issue which I was hoping was the start capacitor.

The means of starting are with a dual pole/2 sided switch with 1 side being momentary on to energize the start capacitor and the other a held position to energize the rest of the motor circuit, including a run capacitor.

When I received it in fact I could get it going by manually spinning the wheel and turning the switch on.
Doing a rough calculation (Google search for charts), I estimated a start capacitor rating of 35/45 mfd should be good.
I had a 56-67 mfd start capacitor and it will start the motor as its supposed to and the existing run capacitor allows the motor to maintain speed.


Both the original start and run capacitors are non labeled and have wires that look about ready to fall apart.
The start capacitor sizing doesn't worry me to much as the momentary possible over sizing shouldn't be a problem.
The motor also has a substantial resetable thermal overload
I'd like to replace the run capacitor with a properly sized one, so I'm looking for that brainchild that can prove how valuable this site is.

I came up with converted to 0.217 hp with a run capacitor value of 7.5mfd(interpolated from a chart)

Mike
 
After sketching up the wiring diagram, I started taking the wiring apart going to the capacitors.
I found the start capacitor wires had a crimp/break within the insulation that was casing the no start issue.
After removing them and the remains of the insulation I was able to try them reconnected.
They started and ran the motor fine.
Pics of the 2 capacitors, the large one about the size of a Red Bull can is the run capacitor, it measures 26.27mfd
The smaller one is the start capacitor it measures 87.9mfd
no markings on either, and although the run capacitor could be repaired with new wires attached, I'm going to source replacements for both.
 

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