Beer Forum

I just built a stir plate as shown in BYO. I tested the fan before I started...worked fine. Once I glued the magnet to the fan hub, tested again and it worked fine. I left this sit over night and when I went to assemble all the parts, I found my fan wants to spin both ways ways, stops and starts and just plain runs like crap. I removed the magnet and it still runs like crap.

Did I magnitize the fan motor somehow?

Sounds like you got wires touching somewhere or a short. Check all your wires again. Post a pic of the guts if you can so we can see how you wired it up.


Travis

I picked up another fan so I'll try that. Unless the fan shorted, the wires are good. I was just concerned about magnetizing the winding within the fan motor. I'll let you know what happens. Thx !

I don't know much, but I know I lov... never mind... anyway
I don't think muffin fans have windings as per a traditional motor, I think they are magnetic drive or some such shit... anyway I never had that problem other than sometimes I need to move the stirbar magnet a little farther away from the fan magnet to allow it to spin... (I use a slim CD case in between)
BUB

Bub,

I've not torn a 12vDC motor apart so you may be right. I took the fan from a Dell machine (might be the best part!). No sure why it whacked-out. I'm using a variable DC power supply. I've seen some designs that use two magnets, the BYO article uses only one magnet.

Any input?

a. I use 1 magnet as well
b. take the magnet off and if it still dosen't spin go spend the 2 bux on a new fan
c. my problem with locking up is when I have a starter on with the stir bar, if I space it up a bit it turns fine.
BUB

Bub,

I swapped the fan and tried it again. My fan must of been dicked. I added a second magnet to help balance the load on the fan hub and reduce the vibration. I put a 12v DC switch and a power LED on my rig.....works great. I'm brewing this weekend so I'll start my yeast tonight. Will post my results regarding the new stir plate.

The stir plate works great. Getting the stir bar to spin takes some trial & error but it works. I'm working to put a pot in the circuit to control the speed via the pot.