It's my understanding that Baldor motors are now certifiable junk! Do not use them.

I have a customer who who makes a machinist's deburring tool that uses a 1/3hp Baldor. I was repairing a CNC lathe and walked by an assembly bench that had about 25 Baldor motors on it in various states of disassembly. Believing Baldors to be quality motors I asked him what I was looking at.

He explained that one day a few years ago Baldor quality tanked. It has remained tanked ever since. He stated that 8 out of 10 have defects that have to be fixed before they can install them into their product. They also have to pre-run them for 2 days each to make sure they won't infant-mortality on them. They in-coming QC them then most to be torn apart so they can make functional motors from the various pieces. I was shocked. To demonstrate pulled two new ones out of the box to show me. One's motor base plate was loose and wobbled. He would have to dissemble the motor to fix that. The second one made a bearing sound when started. I'd seen enough.

Your experience shows that their entire product line is involved.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

Thanks for the information, this is helpful. I have noticed the same quality drop that you are describing in 7.5-15 HP motors as well. Typically, they are not as bad as the 1/3HP you were describing, but internal shorts, overamping, grinding noises, and improperly welded castings, as well as variable vibration performances are fairly common.

Thanks for confirming. That pretty much seals the whole sinking ship theory. Very sad.

I have heard good reports about IronHorse motors pedaled by Automation Direct and also WEG motors sold by Factorymation. Both likely much less expensive than Baldors.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com