I have recovered an AO Smith electric motor from a garage door opener that I would like to repurpose. I have tried for a couple of hours on the web to locate wiring help and have decided to post here.

The motor plate is:
http://www.viciousbunny.net/images/MotorTag.JPG

A look at the wires is:
http://www.viciousbunny.net/images/MotorWires.JPG

I am planning to bold the "fan" seen in the upper right corner of the second image to use as a forge blower, so I only need the motor to run in one direction.

Initially, the white and black wires had been connected to the small blue capacitors. I am pretty amateur at electronics. I understand this is a single phase, probably capacitor start, electric motor. I read the AO Smith AC-DC manual, but it didn't seem to have the answers I was looking for.

Is there a simple way to hook up just a few wires to get this to run, so that I could wire it to a switch and turn it on to run in just one direction?

Thank you.

 

That first picture just almost shows the diagram of how to connect the motor.

ps, look out for the intermittent rating! This motor is not designed to survive continuous use.

 

For a forge blower, you really want something on the order of an automotive 12vdc defroster motor and fan, with a simple speed control circuit. Google an outfit like Grainger, or Fasco. There are any number of blower assemblies available, based on CFM output...tho' I know that building is more fun

Variable, due to the need to maintain constant [ or nearly ] airflow, and thereby temperature in your forge. It is easy to go overboard with airflow, making your fire too hot, consuming your fuel charge too quickly.

Granddaddy was a working blacksmith. I spent countless hours in his tutelage. Tho' no "expert" by any stretch of the imagination, I too will build a small charcoal forge to "wow" my own grandchildren with.

My current obsession along these lines, is an induction heating system, with various coils for heating different sizes of materials ....... primarily for bending various forms of steel, to make parts among other things. It is superior to flame heating for a long list of reasons.

The "science channel" series of 'how it's made' features a lot of uses for these systems.

 

That first picture just almost shows the diagram of how to connect the motor.

ps, look out for the intermittent rating! This motor is not designed to survive continuous use.

Yeah, if you understand it. I don't. It doesn't say what the blanks and browns and reds and blues connect to, or I don't get it.

What wires do I connect the black and white power wires from my outlet to? Do I connect the blue and red to the yellow? One at a time? etc?

I saw the diagram but I don't know how to read it

 

I didn't see the diagram! Take another pic and show me

I'll try to read it for you.

 

For instance... What does "line" mean? Is this the main power line from the house?

Why are there two blacks?

What is the brown for?

What are to two small capacitors for?

 

I didn't see the diagram! Take another pic and show me

I'll try to read it for you.

http://www.viciousbunny.net/images/MotorWires.JPG

 

I didn't see the diagram! Take another pic and show me

I'll try to read it for you.

http://www.viciousbunny.net/images/MotorTag.JPG

 

I didn't see the diagram! Take another pic and show me

I'll try to read it for you.

The way it looks to me, I should connect the black to black coming from my outlet. Then connect white to the yellow, and touch either red or blue to yellow to start, but when I do that nothing happens.

I suppose it could be broken.

 

You are missing the idea. The original pictures are not adequet because they do not show the line drawing in its completeness. Please try again, and while you're at it, do not disconnect anything. That big capacitor is probably right where it belongs.

 

Yeah, sadly there are no other diagrams I can find. I tried putting the motor type in the see if there was a wiring diagram out there, but came up short.

Thanks for trying.

 

Still missing the idea. The drawing is good. The photos are not. I need to see the drawing...all of it...in one photo.

 

There is no other drawing and nothing is missing from the photo.


http://www.viciousbunny.net/images/MotorTag.JPG

The diagram on the right looks exactly like the photo above. I've never been good at anci art byt it looks like this (Ignore the dots):



BLK_____________
BLK_____________
RED_____________
............._ |_.......|
............. _ _ ......-----------
Blue_____|_____|.......|
BRN__________........|Line
YEL_______________|___

Additionally:
White to red or blue, 8-9 ohms.
White to Brown. 0 ohms (full connectioned)
Red or Blue to brown, 8-9 ohms.
Black doesn't seem to have any connectivity to anything,nor ground to chassis.

 

So sorry. Part of the label seems to be missing, which explains why this is so difficult.

I can only suggest that AO Smith will be open for business tomorrow and the model number could get you the information you need.

 

This is a fairly standard door opener motor. To run motor, connect the red wire to one side of the capacitor, and the blue wire to the other side of the capacitor. Polarity is not an issue. Apply the hot wire of the 120 volts supply to the yellow wire, and the neutral to either the red or the blue, depending on the desired direction of rotation. Isolate and insulate each of the brown and black wires(do not join them to eachother or anything else). As pointed out in another post, this motor is intended for intermittent duty only, and will overheat if left running too long.

 

You can sometimes get lucky and a person who works with these motors will pop up with the answer.

 

This is a fairly standard door opener motor. To run motor, connect the red wire to one side of the capacitor, and the blue wire to the other side of the capacitor. Polarity is not an issue. Apply the hot wire of the 120 volts supply to the yellow wire, and the neutral to either the red or the blue, depending on the desired direction of rotation. Isolate and insulate each of the brown and black wires(do not join them to eachother or anything else). As pointed out in another post, this motor is intended for intermittent duty only, and will overheat if left running too long.

Thank you very much. I noticed there was no internal cooling fan. Do you think that some shrouding to draw the input air through the motor housing would be sufficient?

ANyway, thanks for the info.

 

Thank you, that worked well.

The RPMs are quite low and probably, combined with the cooling issue, make it un likely to work well for a forge blower. Thanks.

 

For a forge blower, you really want something on the order of an automotive 12vdc defroster motor and fan, with a simple speed control circuit. Google an outfit like Grainger, or Fasco. There are any number of blower assemblies available, based on CFM output...tho' I know that building is more fun

Variable, due to the need to maintain constant [ or nearly ] airflow, and thereby temperature in your forge. It is easy to go overboard with airflow, making your fire too hot, consuming your fuel charge too quickly.

Granddaddy was a working blacksmith. I spent countless hours in his tutelage. Tho' no "expert" by any stretch of the imagination, I too will build a small charcoal forge to "wow" my own grandchildren with.

My current obsession along these lines, is an induction heating system, with various coils for heating different sizes of materials ....... primarily for bending various forms of steel, to make parts among other things. It is superior to flame heating for a long list of reasons.

The "science channel" series of 'how it's made' features a lot of uses for these systems.

Thanks. I have the fan, housing, shroud and vent cover. It came off of a forge blower that broke. I just need to find a small replacement motor.

 

Your yellow wire, serves as line neutral, or return. I am basing this on the white wires still attached, as white is normally the neutral.......I know this is contrary to Hagens' post, however this is not a common hookup.

The red and blue, with the capacitor in between, is directional. Line hot to one of these, should rotate the motor in one direction or the other, as the diagram on the motor shows this as an either / or hookup, likely through the raise / lower limit switches on the chain rail.

The blacks have me wanting to get to work inna morning, and look up some literature, 'cuz they are not making sense - yet.......I shall return and update this asap.

Update: Red/blu wiring as written. about your fan. rotation dependent. air digs, water slaps.

Set your fan hub-side down, on the table. the direction the top [ outside ] of the blades face, is the direction of rotation.