I've been wondering this for a long time,and figured I would ask you guys to see what you all had to say.

I've been think about T Jet and MT type motor brushes alot lately.Yeah,I'm weird ok,so what??? :)
What make ones like Thunderbrushes better then the run of the mill stock type ones????Obviously,it would be the material that they are made of.But what are some of the materials that are used.

I'm a do it yourself kind of guy big time,and I just think that if I got my hands on the right material,I could easily make as many of these that I want,even if I had to trim them off of a piece of bar stock and polish them to the right size by hand.

ANy thoughts??????

I hope to see some of you in the chat room later on tonite too.


Mike

Hey Mike, DAC here.
Thunder brushes are slightly taller than stock but I dont know about the material. Never heard of bar stock carbon-copper, but they gotta be findin it somewhere obviosly. For a couple bucks a set tho the labor of cuttin and polishin them perfectly doesnt seem worthwile to me. I take them peaked things out of AFX non- magnetractions and JL t-jets and run Thunder Brushes in them too. I cant prove it but the power feels smoother to me by doin that. Experts say that you shouldnt let them rotate but I cant feel any difference on that.
Later Circle Track DAC

Brushes can be made from graphite, carbon graphite, metal graphite (tin, silver, lead, copper, and other alloys mixed with graphite), and electrographitic material (a graphite cooked at extremely high temperatures >2000C). In slot cars I'd have to guess that the copper metal graphite is the most common for newer motors and carbon graphite for older ones. Higher performance brushes tend to emphasize the silver metal graphite mix but you cannot assume all silver colored brushes have silver in them.

Metal graphite brushes are produced by mixing the powdered graphite and metal mixture, molding it, and sintering the molded mixture. I have no idea what kind of production equipment, pressure, or temperatures are involved.

The secret with brushes is to come up with that "magic" recipe that presents the most number of positive benefits and the fewest number of negative effects for the target application. The different materials that go into the mix all have different electrical and mechanical characteristics. The exact recipe used heavily affects the current carrying capacity, voltage drop, commutator wear, residue, filming behavior, friction, heat generation, and so on of the brushes in the motor. What makes one brush, be it a Thunderbrushes or a Wizzard brush, better than any other brush is getting the recipe just right for the application. Research, design, build, and test. Repeat until you get it right.