Best way to turn a stuck drive shaft.

[olivero]

Carefully, is the best way.

 

I have a very severe lack of understanding of what you are trying to do.

[rocket80]

So our immersion blender will turn it’s motor but not its Blade.  Having had this issue before with a Waring model I tried to manually turn the blade to see if I could start it moving again. Had no luck turning it but I did manage to frag the blade. Need to replace said Blade, but without being able to turn the shaft that simple project is very difficult.

[olivero]

What? You contradicted yourself.

 

rocket80 wrote:

 

So our immersion blender will turn it’s motor but not its Blade.  Having had this issue before with a Waring model I tried to manually turn the blade to see if I could start it moving again. Had no luck turning it but I did manage to frag the blade. Need to replace said Blade, but without being able to turn the shaft that simple project is very difficult.

You said the motor will turn but the shaft won’t? Is the shaft seperate? Is it like a right handed gear motor or something?

[rocket80]

Yes, motor runs but shaft doesn’t. They are connected, as this is a very large immersion blender from Dynamic.  There is a lot of whirring noises made but nothing is happening on the blade end.

[olivero]

Okay, so lets just clear something up.

 

When you say its “running” you mean its humming, not that its moving, like actually running but its turned on and responding to power and trying to move but its actually not moving?

[rocket80]

Correct

[olivero]

Fantastic, is something jammed, holding the gear in place? Otherwise, if you are able to, you might just be able to put a wrench on the shaft and turn it opposite to the way its trying to turn, that might make it so its not jammed anymore but you will have to fix the jam somehow, could be the gears got mashes and it won’t turn or a screw fell into the back of the armature and jammed it, many possibilities here.

 

Are you a service tech or the guy using the machine?

[rocket80]

I am just the user as a Sous Chef at the restaurant. I was not present when the machine failed, as far as I know there was no catastrophic event, it just failed to engage when we tried to start it last week. The machine is used only once or twice a week.  The shaft has no bolt end to easily attach to, my thought is to try a handheld drill to grasp the end and spin it in reverse a bit.

 

Sent from my iPad

[olivero]

OkayOkay, but how is the motor jammed then? If the motor is jammed without anything having gone wrong with it then its probably not a jam, could be the windings are shot and its not able to spin. You can try the drill but that machine has a lot more torque then your drill does, when the chefs I work with get their stuff jammed, I grap 2 or 6 foot pipe wrenches and grap the end of the attachment and just tweak it backwards until the jam clears.

Then i slap them over the fingers to prove my point

 

Are you able to take the machine apart? Do you have any tools? Mechanical skills, electrical knowledge?

 

I would open the machine and see whats going on before doing anything, unless you KNOW something got jammed int he blender and couild have jammed the shaft of something is currently stuck, then it might be internal and you might just make it worse by trying to unjam it without looking at it first.

[rocket80]

I usually use something with a lot of tourqe to clear a jam like this, but this unit gives me nothing attach a tool to except the blade. And while it needed replacing anyway, I probably  shouldn’t risk breaking the new one.

 

I have decent mechanical and electrical experience, but taking this apart and finding worn bushings and gears or significant wear on the motor brushes would only leave me to have to hand the machine to our repair guy in pieces. Might be best if I send it out now, before putting more time and/or damage into it.

 

I will see if I can find something to attach to the end of the shaft and use my longest wrench with an extension bar and try some moves to get it to shift. Then I’ll hand it to experts like yourself. 

 

Thank you very much for your patience in sharing your expertise.