Salutary lesson ...

[XH558]

The wind died a little this evening and the rain stopped so I had a quick dusk flight to see the new LEDs glowing ... very impressive - held it';s own in the remaining wind which was a tad gusty -  I';ll do a video when I have more time ...

The orange and green props glow nicely as the LEDs show through their arcs and in the middle of the flight I noticed a green one was tracking wrong - first high then straight then low ... so fearing I was about to lose a prop I landed and took it in the man cave ...

I had carefully tightened all the props before the flight - and checked all the cable ties and bolts on the motor mounts so was a little surprised to see the tracking issue ...

But what I found really DID surprise me ... the motors have a shaft that sits inside a collar that then has the mounting bolt holes in it - the collar is attached to the shaft with tiny allen grub screws and on the one motor the grub screw had totally gone - so all that was holding the motor in was the 3 wires 

The motor was REALLY loose ...Never thought to check those grub screws .... replaced the missing one and checked the other 5 ... 3 were very loose and one a bit loose and one still quite tight 

Something else to check each flight now 

[Smeagol]

As you say a salutory lesson, but surely you';ve heard before that you have a screw loose  :evil

Well spotted, could have had disastrous results, and a reminder for all pre flight checks.

[teslahed]

It';s quite often the case that new motors arrive without the proper amount of thread lock on the grub screws. Gary has recommended to me before that you should unscrew the grub screws from your motors and reapply threadlock before tightening them up again - before the first flight. I check new motors for this now - I';ve spotted a few that were not all that well held together.

[Smeagol]

It';s quite often the case that new motors arrive without the proper amount of thread lock on the grub screws. Gary has recommended to me before that you should unscrew the grub screws from your motors and reapply threadlock before tightening them up again - before the first flight. I check new motors for this now - I';ve spotted a few that were not all that well held together.

Just added threadlock to my shopping list, what about lube for the motors, is this necessary and if so what is used

[Gaza07]

I had quite a bit of trouble with my shafts coming loose but a prescription of blue thread locker soon fixed em   

[Smeagol]

I had quite a bit of trouble with my shafts coming loose but a prescription of blue thread locker soon fixed em   

I had blue on my list, not sure why blue as opposed to red ....

What about lube

[XH558]

I think I';ve got some kicking around somewhere in the cave ... question is where ??

That';s the trouble with so many Lurpak tubs ... it';s in one of them ... but there';s so many to check 

[Gaza07]

Blue can be removed where as red is kind or permanent  talking about lurpak you havent seen Smeagol lurpaking around in chat 

[teslahed]

Just added threadlock to my shopping list, what about lube for the motors, is this necessary and if so what is used

Get the blue (medium strength) threadlock - you don';t want the permanent stuff. Different colours denote different strengths.

I';ve never really needed to lube any of my motors. If anyone else knows stuff about this I';d be interested to hear. 

[Gaza07]

As far as I know all the bearings used on these little motors are sealed both sides so I doubt you can lube em 

[Smeagol]

As far as I know all the bearings used on these little motors are sealed both sides so I doubt you can lube em 

Does that apply to ALL of these brushless motors, or how can I identify if lube is required.

[Gaza07]

I can only assume they all use sealed bearings, I suppose if you can see the ball bearings then splash a bit of oil on em, but if there is a shield there isn';t much point, even if the back of the bearing was open you wouldn';t be able to get to it to lube it 

[Smeagol]

I can only assume they all use sealed bearings, I suppose if you can see the ball bearings then splash a bit of oil on em, but if there is a shield there isn';t much point, even if the back of the bearing was open you wouldn';t be able to get to it to lube it 

Ok that makes sense, one of the videos I have viewed, the guy added lube with a squeeze bottle and a syringe needle