can an electromagnet burn? or malfunction?

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Eric Comptom

Joined Feb 12, 2019
2
Hello, i have an electric razor, which when you open it, its just an electromagnet directly connected to AC, which push/pull a lever. (see image attachment).
Suddenly my razor its not moving at all its just making a buzzing sound. there are no additional compoments(no diodes, no rectifiers, etc), just an electrogmanet. what do you think is happening? what is the most common failures with electromagnets?
 

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ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
Hello, i have an electric razor, which when you open it, its just an electromagnet directly connected to AC, which push/pull a lever. (see image attachment).
Suddenly my razor its not moving at all its just making a buzzing sound. there are no additional compoments(no diodes, no rectifiers, etc), just an electrogmanet. what do you think is happening? what is the most common failures with electromagnets?
The hair clippers usually have a user adjustment - probably internal on shavers if they have one.

shorted turns is a possibility - if its also overheating.
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
Remove the blade assemblies and see if it vibrates like crazy. If so then the blades may just be putting a very heavy load on the armature. Those clippers often come with a little bottle of oil to lubricate the blades. You don't want a lot of oil because you don't want to be depositing oil in your hair.

I wanted to mention the adjustment but I see @ian field beat me to the comment. The clippers I've owned have just such an adjustment so you can set the optimum amount of movement of the blades. Not sure - but I think it's possible for that adjustment to move on its own. I would think most often it would loosen, but there's no law that says it can't tighten. Or maybe someone else messed with it to see what happens. Having a lack of understanding what they were doing they may have just put it back and said nothing. Can't tell you how many times my kids did something like that and then just left it for me to discover. Little stinkers.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
Max is right about the shorted turns acting as a shading coil. AND it is entirely possible for an electromagnet to develop shorted turns. It is repairable but the repair is quite tedious, as it involves unwinding to find the shorted turns and then removing the short circuits and rewinding the rest of the coil. Entirely do-able but really quite tedious. That is a quite ancient design for an electric shaver, by the way.
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
That is a quite ancient design for an electric shaver, by the way.
And yet many being made today, by most clipper companies still use it. Because it works and has so few parts. Most times the blades are dull and can't be easily sharpened(by most owners) long before the motor goes bad.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
Here is another thought, which is that there may have been a shift in the mechanical resonance of that vibrating section. I believe that the motion is mechanicaly amplified by resonance, and so if something changes and it is no longer resonant then the motion will be much less. So it may be as simple as a loose screw or two. That sort of problem should be simpler to find and fix.
 
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