Recently I hauled home an old Trinco blast cabinet from a local repair shop who upgraded to a giant (and hugely expensive) Snap-On cabinet. After welding up some odd bolt holes and reworking the viewing lens, I'm moving on to reviving the vacuum unit. It is just a 1/3 hp motor running a fan (Trinco calls it a turbine). The blades were hitting the blower housing on startup, though as soon as it got up to speed, it was quiet. I found a lot of end float in the motor shaft, about 0.080". Is that normal? Second, I opened up the motor to clean out an amazing amount of dust and noticed the bearing area packed with dried out orange grease (I think). Is that some sort of special motor grease? A quick Google shows Mobil, Lubriplate and others that make grease specifically for electric motor bearings. Anyone have any recommendations for for re-greasing these sleeve bearings?
