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A drill came with these parts. I've tried searching for them but I don't know what keywords to use.

They are each a bit longer than an inch.

enter image description here

StayOnTarget
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ispiro
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1 Answers1

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Those are replacement brushes for the electric motor in your drill. They are what make the electrical contact to the coil in the motor that spins, while also allowing it to spin. The rectangular part on the end will eventually wear out. It's nice of your drill manufacturer to give you a set of spares.

You can swap these out either by removing a couple of plugs somewhere on the drill body, or if there are no plugs, you'd have to remove the drill's case and get to them that way. The plugs are usually round and have a slot for a screwdriver, they simply unscrew to expose the brush.

If this is a new drill, this should be explained in the instruction manual.

PhilippNagel
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    All true, I usually see these on motors with cheap armatures that wipe the brushes out quickly in motor life terms. – Ed Beal May 07 '20 at 14:38
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    Thanks. `this should be explained in the instruction manual.` - "should" is correct. :) – ispiro May 07 '20 at 15:00
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    I've never seen an instruction manual refer to anything more than that they can be theoretically be changed out. They sell more drills if people don't know how to do it. :) – Andrew D May 07 '20 at 15:36
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    I have never seen them include an extra set of brushes.+ – JACK May 07 '20 at 16:23
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    All the cheap drills I've ever bought came with those for reasons I cannot fathom, but the time those wear out, the rest of the drill will probably be ready for the trashcan – boatcoder May 07 '20 at 22:36
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    I have a Skil drill that's older than I am. I've replaced the brushes like twice. – barbecue May 08 '20 at 00:13
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    @barbecue That is actually quite impressive (unless you are 4 years old.... which i suppose would still be impressive, but for a totally different reason). – Z4-tier May 08 '20 at 02:26
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    @Z4-tier I inherited it from my grandfather when I was a teenager, it was made in the late 1950s. Still works. – barbecue May 08 '20 at 15:48
  • Let me guess, this drill came from Harbor Freight. It is junk and they know it, so they include spare brushes when they wear out quickly. I guess that's kind of decent of them. – Glen Yates May 08 '20 at 16:04
  • @GlenYates My approach to Harbor Freight is I use them for tools that I'm unlikely to use frequently enough to get to the point that I'm going to wear them out. Like an impact wrench that I use to take my lugnuts off when I change my brake pads -- what, once a year at most? – Tristan May 08 '20 at 16:13
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    @barbecue "made in the late 1950s" <-- _that_ explains it! It was _not_ made to be disposable – FreeMan May 08 '20 at 17:40
  • I consider Harbor Freight to be basically a cheaper way to rent tools I will only use once – barbecue May 08 '20 at 20:27
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    @JACK - I've only really seen it with cheap-o tools (think Harbor Freight, Ryobi, Ridgid, etc.) I don't recall getting brushes with a "nice" tool. Maybe they're all brushless now? In any case, I usually lose them in the first few minutes after taking it out of the box (or toss them in a tool box and forget which go with which) and by the time they need replaced, end up buying a new tool... – gnicko May 08 '20 at 20:40
  • @Z4-tier To be fair, it's impressive if it got a lot of regular use over those decades. If it got used once a fortnight...maybe less so. – J... May 08 '20 at 21:32