Mice got into my lathe motor

tbone8

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Daggum mice have not been kind to me this year. First go round a few weeks ago, they got into my mig welder and chewed through the gas line and used the contactor as a toilet and gummed it all up. Got that fixed and mouse proofed it with wire mesh.

On to the lathe... Ran it, stopped it to change something and when I went to start it, it would not turn. Thought the bearings or something seized up and when I pulled the junction box cover for the wiring, I saw the dreaded mouse nest fluff. Have always dreaded the thought of ever trying to pull that motor and the task did not let me down. Actually it wasn't that bad aside from a nice pinch of one of my finger tips and the PITA of wrestling that thing out.

Got it on the bench and thankfully, so far, they only had a party in the rear of the motor. They drug in some sort of long and tough fibers in it and it wrapped around the shaft and cooling fins. Pulled the back cover off, cleaned it out and reassembled it. Spins freely now but am leaving the door open that the motor might be damaged. Will keep my fingers crossed when I put it back in tomorrow. Gonna mouse proof it too.

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A hungry cat or regular scented Bounce dryer sheets. If no pets or kids then do what you want.
 
Squirrels are nasty too. This was under the table of my K&T mill when I brought it home.
Cheers
Martin
 

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Thank goodness they don't eat copper wire LOL
-M
But they do eat copper wire or at least chew through it. They have destroyed a set of noise cancelling headphones (in my office desk), two ham radio microphones, and countless other pieces of electrical wire, including the ABS sensor wiring on my old Grand Caravn, the ignition wiring on my wife's Audi and the wires to the fuel tank vent solenoid on her Mazda CX5. Mice got into the below deck wiring on a friend's Warrior boat while it was in winter storage, requiring a complete rewiring of the boat.
 
Maybe it's the insulation they're after and they don't know when to stop? Wow, metal toothed mice of death
 
I've also had them chew threw wires on two of my vehicles. Have had pretty good luck this last year with peppermint soaked cotton balls, placed in old jar lids inside, and under the hood of my vehicles. Regular old mouse traps still seem to be the best bet in side buildings. Mike
 
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