Spent 6 hours trying to fix a forge blower, ended up being a single loose wire

I was tinkering with my homebuilt forge last weekend and the blower kept cutting out after 5 minutes. Tore the whole motor apart, checked bearings, cleaned the impeller, even rewired the switch. Six hours later I found a wire nut that was barely hanging on inside the junction box. One twist and it was fixed. I almost threw the whole thing in the scrap pile. Anyone else waste half a day on something that dumb?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna_coleman2mo ago

Found a mouse nest under my car hood after three hours of weird engine noises.

green.jessica13d agoMost Upvoted

Three hours is rough, but honestly you got lucky it wasn't worse. I had a friend who drove around for two weeks with a dead mouse stuck in her engine fan and the smell was absolutely unreal. She thought something died under her porch until she popped the hood and found the whole nest with a few little bodies. The worst part is they chew on wires, so now she's looking at a $400 repair bill because the little guys gnawed through some sensor cable. Check your wires real close, even if the nest is gone they usually leave a trail of damage behind.

evan_harris142mo ago

And then you feel like an absolute idiot for not checking that first.