I have metal shaving on my motor's magnet, what do I do?
 

I was turning down my shaft on my kb45 8XL and I got some metal shavings on the magnet in the process.

How do I get that stuff off?

Is it a big deal if some of it stays on and I run the motor anyway?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Compressed air is your best bet, otherwise you need to take the motor apart to manually clean it or risk eating the windings with the shavings.

How big is the air gap compared to the shavings?

Eye goggles and compressed air with a jet nozzal maybe. Can't be good for it.

Next time you work on a motor poke the shaft through a plastic bag to keep the metal out of the motor.

How big is the gap between the magnet to the windings in comparison to the shavings, is that what you mean? They are super tiny way smaller than the air gap. I guess its more like metal particles than shavings, much finer than sand, I got most of it off my just grabbing it with my fingers, their aint much left.

The motor went in a lathe, no way a baggy would have saved it it or really have worked for that matter either. When I am using a dremel or a drill I always use a plastic bag it just wasnt practical in this situration as I need to turn down a 6mm shaft into a 5mm one.

I get little metal klingons orbiting the outside of my smooth can motor sometimes.

Ah, so you actually had the rotor outside the can when this happened. Try to use a paper towel to wipe them off, it will grab them better than your finger. Even better, a tack cloth may work.

Masking tape works good to remove metal dust from magnets.

Lol. That would be funny to see. I would remove them as you don't know where they will end up once you rotor starts spinning at 45000rpm.