These are typical symptoms of bearings not being oiled the right way.

Did you infuse the oil using vacuum etc. or did you merely add drops of oil to the bearing?
Which type of oil did you use?

Oh, and don't clean switches with sandpaper. It does permanent damage to the extremely thin platinum layer on the switch contacts.
Use a piece of paper soaked in contact cleaner, pulled a couple of times between closed contacts. 

Martin

Thanks for the quick reply. 

I didn't have any handy way to pull vacuum, but I heated the bearings to several hundred degrees in synthetic 10w30 oil (I figured if it's good enough for my Volvo 240...), after I soaked them in acetone. I also degreased the felt and soaked in the same oil. I could rig something up to pull a vacuum, I suppose. 

I didn't go nuts on the switch contacts, but thank you, I had no idea they were platinum. Most switches I've seen of this type had a small silver pad on the contact point, not platinum. 

Wrong oil for a start. It simply doesn't have the necessary additives.

Use a good old SAE30 or a good high speed spindle oil like Mobil Velocite 6, which is what I have used for the last couple of years with great results.

We mustn't forget, that this is a one-phase AC-motor of the "short-circuit" type.

In theory this type of motor has no initial torque and relies solely on being extremely easy running, right from the start.

This is not just one metal object rotating inside another metal object.

This is a hard-chromed precision turned metal spindle running inside precision-cast sinter-bronze ("Oilite") bearings.

The oil sits inside pores in the bearing metal and is sucked out from the pores by a tiny vacuum created

by the rotating spindle, in turn creating an ultra-thin film of oil for it to run in.

Perfectly set up (bearings correctly oiled and aligned axially etc.) there won't be any metal-metal contact, which

again means no friction or wear to speak of.

Any oil added to the outside of the material (like oil added in drops as you would normally do) is simply being pushed away, slowly but certainly - as yours has been now, and nothing useable is coming from the pores, so you are back where you started from. - Except for the wrong oil you've added.

Clean off as much as you can of the oil you've added and infuse the right thing under vacuum.

Using a "Food-saver", this takes about 16-24 hours.
Using a harder vacuum, considerably less.

The motor will run as new and last for the next 30 years.

Martin

I'll give the food saver a try. What about Zoom Spout turbine oil? Do you think that is the right quality? I can't find specs on it.

What if the bearing were treated like solid bronze? I was thinking of using a jewelers saw to cut an oil channel in the bearing, but that would be a last resort. 

Thanks again,

Sean

That'll be no and absolutely no.

Turbines typically use ball or roller bearings - completely different lubricants.
Any damage, even the slightest surface scuff inside the sinter bronze bearing, and the bearing is useless.
It's a very soft material. You can scratch it with a nail.
Don't treat sinter bronze as anything else.

Martin

Dillen, have you any recomented supplier for oil? I seem that I have to buy 20liters if I buy from Finland.

Thank you for the advice, Martin. I will try again on the motor bearings. 

Regarding the speed selector lever, mine was bare copper, so I glued a piece of felt to it, then oiled the felt. Is this an acceptable solution in your opinion? 

Thanks,

Sean

As long as it doesn't brake too much, I think it'll be fine.
I like to glue on a small sheet of teflon cut to shape.

Martin