Just saved a ton of time on a 3-phase motor swap with an alignment trick

Was swapping a 15 HP motor out at a water treatment plant in Akron yesterday. Usually I fight with laser alignment for 45 minutes, but an old guy I was with showed me to just use a straightedge across the coupling hubs and feel for gaps with a .0015 feeler gauge. Got it aligned in under 10 minutes and the motor ran smooth as hell. Anyone else got a go-to method that skips the fancy tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennifer_west5215d ago

I've been doing this kind of work around Cleveland for 25 years now. That old timer's straightedge trick is how we used to do every single pump and motor alignment back before lasers got cheap. The trick isn't the tool, it's knowing how to feel that .0015 gap and making sure your coupling hubs are clean and true. A 15 HP motor isn't some giant turbine, and if you check the soft foot and shim it right, that feeler gauge method will hold for years. I respect taking your time, but I've seen guys spend 45 minutes with a laser and still end up chasing a bad reading because the bracket was loose or the battery was dying.

rowanbennett11d agoMost Upvoted

and what about the temp swings in a water plant? i've seen couplings go out of whack just from the building heating up during the day. that old timer feeler gauge trick might hold fine at 60 degrees but come afternoon when it's 90 in that room, a laser will pick up the thermal growth. just saying.

evac7215d ago

Is a water treatment plant really the place for a 10 minute alignment though? My luck with feeler gauges on a big motor like that would be it vibrating loose after a week and costing way more in downtime. I get skipping the fancy laser stuff sometimes, but for a 15 HP unit I'd rather take the extra half hour and do it right.