Electric Motor Question

Probably brushes stuck or birty communtator - if it smoked it might be done for especially as it tripped a breaker - which would mean a 15 Amp dead short somewhere inside . 
 Depending on what age and who made it - never know might be parts out there to fix it - but at what cost is next - setting for long time varnish on armature or field winding probably broke down from moisture 

yea, you got nothing to loose now.. pull the brushes out and rub some very very very fine cloth or steel wool over the commutator... make sure the brushes SLIDE easy in the holder and the springs hold tension .......... and as tadams said, rotate it to see how the bearings feel.

My air compressor motor went up in smoke last fall, actually had flames shooting out of it. I took it to a rebuild shop
IT works great now. Motor was made many years ago.

I disagree with JC.  It CAN be fixed no matter what......
Yes, tear into it and see what is what.  It's already broke, so you can't hurt it anymore.  Just be mindful of how you take it apart.  Ever had one apart??  If no, take pics with your phone as you go along.
I'm guessing brushes also.  Unless you got a ton of spiders in there building nests, I don't know what else could stop the armature from turning.  But, could be a bearing.
Good luck!!  I have a Monkey Wards one that I bought back in the 60s.  It's a 3/4 horse 7-1/2" and it still runs GREAT.  Beats all the new 3/4 ones hands down.
If worse comes to worse, bring it along to Hutch.  I've got an old guy (yep, older than ME) and he's STILL got his shop.  His daughter (she's about my age) does all the work now, but he's always there, sittin by the potbelly and drinking HIS coffee.  You can CUT it.....

UH...before we get ahead of ourselves, first question is how does it turn by hand? if it tight, turning by hand, I would suspect dryed out sticking bearings/bushings. I doubt it is a dead short, a dead short would trip the breaker pretty darn fast. It is drawing too much current from too high a load, it was running near stall by your description. I suspect old sawdust wadded up in it and or bushing/bearings

Got it disassembled today. The blade turned a little harder by hand than I remembered. I did find a lot of old saw dust and hard dried grease around the reduction gears (if that's what you call them). The bearing on the commutator end turns smooth, but there is a brass bushing on the other end that looks kinda dry. Brushes weren't stuck, but the commutator does have a glaze on it that will need cleaned off. I'm thinking a good cleaning may get it back in service. 

What grease do y’all recommend putting in the gear reduction assembly? All the old grease was pretty hard, so I cleaned it all out.

Hey, I actually do! I’ll use that

you didn't feel a buzz on yer fingers did you?

shameless dude wrote: you didn't feel a buzz on yer fingers did you?

Haha, no I didn’t. I was a little leery of that.

When too much of the SMOKE leaks out, the motor is no longer usable........ I would guess that is the case. Internal damage of the windings.

Edited by steve(ill) - 01 Jan 2020 at 9:28am

field rotates, then the rotor will follow and rotate with the magnetic field of the stator.



As shown in Figure 9, the stator has six magnetic poles and the rotor has two poles. At time 1, stator poles A-1 and C-2 are north poles and the opposite poles, A-2 and C-1, are south poles. The S-pole of the rotor is attracted by the two N-poles of the stator and the two south poles of the stator attract the N-pole of the rotor. At time 2, the polarity of the stator poles is changed so that now C-2 and B-1 and N-poles and C-1 and B-2 are S-poles. The rotor then is forced to rotate 60 degrees to line up with the stator poles as shown. At time 3, B-1 and A-2 are N. At time 4, A-2 and C-1 are N. As each change is made, the opposite poles on the stator attract the poles of the rotor. Thus, as the magnetic field of the stator rotates, the rotor is forced to rotate with it.                  

Well, as much as I hate to junk something as well built as this (and built in America), I may end up doing that, or save it for wall decor like you say.