# jb's thunder brushes



## wyatt641 (Jan 14, 2012)

curious if anyone has compared these brushes to wizzard brushes and the brushes harrison sells on his model motoring site??
also why no website for jb's??tried to look for their site but to no avail.just wanted to see the site and read their info..as you can with the other 2 sites for brushes..let me know what you guys think of all 3 brushes before i invest my spare change..
dave:thumbsup:


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

hi wyatt if you check/search in the tuning section you,ll find what the ho community says about brush choices. for me i use jb,s thunder brush,s. and i get them from jag hobbies. if i remember correctly some of the folk like wizard some like jb,s and some prefer stock or even silver! maybe try all three and make a decission what goes best for your application. as i mentioned round here it jb,s in all my t-jets and afx. i spect this doesnt help much but check out tuning tips and triks!


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

FWIW- My Favorite Brushes are JB's, my 2nd Fave is Wizard.... I've Tried Slot tech too, but am not impressed, and they are very tall, so I think their claimed advantage comes from addition spring pressure caused by their increased height.
I have tried all others too, and won't use anything but JB's or Wizard....


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

PS- the more Silver a brush has, the faster it will wear the comm plate. And you can always see the increased wear on the comm plate on Wild Ones Arm Plates, Tuff Ones Arm Plates and the early A/FX non MT chassis arm plates.....all those used Auroras High Silver content brushes.
And FYI- JB's have a higher silver content, but in the safe range, while Wizard's use a High Copper content. But I like JB's best.... my .02¢


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

> My Favorite Brushes are JB's, my 2nd Fave is Wizard.... I've Tried Slot tech too, but am not impressed, and they are very tall, so I think their claimed advantage comes from addition spring pressure caused by their increased height.


based on you statement, the wizzard brushes would be better than the JB because like the slottech brushes they are much taller

JB = .066
wizzard .065
slottech .065

dyno performance


pretest old slottech brushes, cut to stop spinning = 1.53 on my VRP dyno

new uncut brush test
Jb........... 1.51 
wizzard.... 1.54
slottech... 1.55

the numbers are normally higher when the brushes are cut.
at races like the challenge, i see a lot car running 2 slottech brushes or 1 slottech & 1 wizzard.


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## waltgpierce (Jul 9, 2005)

*comparison*

This was done a few years ago. However, I think the test results are still pertinent:


*Thunderjet motor brush comparison*

SYNOPSIS: A non-scientific comparison test of the Stock, HOWORLD, J.B. Thunderbrushes, and Wizzard High Performance motor brushes for the Thunderjet HO-scale slot car as it relates to performance, using a relative measure of revolutions per minute (RPM) at the rear tires.

Two new chassis were used for the testing. 
- Chassis #1 was a “F” chassis, “H” top plate, Black/Black magnets, and a gold wire arm.
- Chassis #2 was an “A” chassis, “G” top plate, White/Green magnets, and a gold wire arm.

Test procedure:
Both chassis were lightly oiled before each test.
The order of testing was randomly chosen.
Each pair of brushes was gently rubbed on a piece of 24lb weight notebook paper, to smooth the brush surface and edges.
For break-in, each pair of the various motor brushes were run in the chassis at 6 volts for 3 minutes, with the idler gear removed. Following this, the idler gear was re-installed and the chassis was run at 18 volts for 3 minutes. The motor brush/chassis was then tested at 18.0 volts. Power was applied directly to the pick-up shoes via small alligator clips. The armature commutator was cleaned between each test, using a rubber-type eraser followed by soft fiber bristle brush.
Each chassis/motor brush combination was tested on a homemade dynamometer, which provided a relative measure of the revolutions per minute (RPM) at the rear tire(s).
Following testing in the two different stock chassis, the motor brush tension was adjusted to yield the highest tested RPM. Thus, two tests were performed on each chassis/motor brush combination.

Additionally, two pair of each of the various motor brushes were measured for height. The results were averaged. 
Stock motor brushes - .062 inches in height
HOWORLD motor brushes - .084 inches in height
JB Thunderbrushes - .068 inches in height
Wizzard motor brushes - .071 inches in height


TEST results:
The higher the number the higher the RPM of the rear wheels

BRUSH type	CHASSIS #1	CHASSIS #1	CHASSIS #2	CHASSIS #2
Stock tension	Maximized tension	Stock tension	Maximized tension
STOCK brushes	605	735	545	685
HOWORLD brushes	440/485 *	625/655 *	540	605
JB Thunderbrushes	680	775	610	700
Wizzard Brushes	690	790	615	695

* Due to the test numbers being significantly lower than the other tested brushes, the idler gear was removed and the chassis re-run on the 6 volt power supply for 15 additional minutes. This was done to further break-in/seat the brushes. The second number is the result of the additional time.

OBSERVATIONS:
The HOWORLD, JB Thunderbrushes, and Wizzard brushes deposited much less on the armature commutator, whereas the Stock brushes required more cleaning of the commutator surface.

CONCLUSION:
Due to the unscientific methodology and limited testing, no conclusions are being made.


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## Greg W (May 22, 2013)

I prefer Wizzard brushes, they seem to be cleaner after a race when teching cars. Also the com stays nice and shiny. Any after market brush is all ways better than stock. Im just happy that we have a few choices in this hobby. Just my 02 cents.


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## smalltime (Jun 3, 2006)

Ralphthe3rd said:


> PS- the more Silver a brush has, the faster it will wear the comm plate. And you can always see the increased wear on the comm plate on Wild Ones Arm Plates, Tuff Ones Arm Plates and the early A/FX non MT chassis arm plates.....all those used Auroras High Silver content brushes.
> And FYI- JB's have a higher silver content, but in the safe range, while Wizard's use a High Copper content. But I like JB's best.... my .02¢


It should be noted exactly what chassis you will be using them in.

An original Aurora Thunder jet chassis has very week brush springs. For me, it's a very rare occurrence to get com wear due to too much brush tension. More often it happens when a brush is left with a sharp edge to catch the edge of a comm, but this is also pretty rare.

Tuffies, AFX non-mag, and Magna-Tractions can generate TONs more brush tension, Thus inflicting much more comm wear. The silver brushes, to me are way softer than anything else, but they leave residue on the com at slow speeds, rendering them terrible for road racing, but pretty good for drags, or ovals.(where I used them)

As to brush choices, I usually use Wizzards, The Slotechs are also very good. I'll be honest, I didn't even know John was still in the game. I haven't been able to purchase them for a while. But when I had them they were very good, on a par with the other two.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Also keep in mind some guys mix and match different brand brushes in their set up...


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*Slottech*



smalltime said:


> .....The Slotechs are also very good. I'll be honest, I didn't even know John was still in the game. I haven't been able to purchase them for a while. But when I had them they were very good, on a par with the other two.


For now, you can still get Slottechs from Bearsox on his Ball Out Racing site- Slottech brushes


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## smalltime (Jun 3, 2006)

Ralphthe3rd said:


> For now, you can still get Slottechs from Bearsox on his Ball Out Racing site- Slottech brushes


I guess I should've worded that differently.

I have Slotech brushes, we can get them. What I can't buy locally are Thunderbrushes by John Balson. 

I hesitate to buy something I can't see with my own eyes first.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*D'oh !*



smalltime said:


> I guess I should've worded that differently.
> 
> I have Slotech brushes, we can get them. What I can't buy locally are Thunderbrushes by John Balson.
> 
> I hesitate to buy something I can't see with my own eyes first.


Oh, ok, I understand you now, I just didn't know the names of the players. And yeah, come to think of it, the Thunderbrushes have been harder to get lately, but I just got some recently from JAG Hobbies, but his prices are a bit high for those.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Ralphthe3rd said:


> FWIW- My Favorite Brushes are JB's, my 2nd Fave is Wizard.... I've Tried Slot tech too, but am not impressed, and they are very tall, so I think their claimed advantage comes from addition spring pressure caused by their increased height.
> I have tried all others too, and won't use anything but JB's or Wizard....


Yup .... the variation in manufactured height alters spring pressure. Throws all that charting work into a cocked hat in my pea brain.

The primitive lever spring design defies the whole slot tard balancing and blue printing mentality...along with pick up tuning it's what puts the voodoo in T-jet tuning. It cant be transferred, it must be learned by feel through practice and careful observation. 

What do I know? I just like brushes that arent on fire ...


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## wyatt641 (Jan 14, 2012)

varying opinions here i see..guess i will have to try them for my self..as for the jb website does it exsist or is he out of business and we are buying up the remnants??


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

wyatt, in the end, if you aren't a dedicated racer, it really doesn't matter WHICH of the available aftermarket brushes you choose, as anything is better than stock carbon. You really can't go wrong with any of the Big Three. I guess I like JB's because of their history and all around good performance, I think Wizard maybe a faster brush, and so may be Slottech, but unless you have a tuned Racer, you won't notice the dif between all three brands. Just my .02¢


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## wyatt641 (Jan 14, 2012)

thanks for the info..just wish jb,s had an active website so i could compare products and pricing.everyone else has a website to compare pricing..as i am somewhat of a cheapskate also and always looking for a good deal..much like everyone else here on h/t


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

I think if the JB were a little taller they would right there as well.

I race with some fast people, so getting speed out of my cars is always very important.

I have to look for any edge I can get
and for now, that is the slottech brushes. A group of did a lot testing and out of about 20 cars, only 1 did not get faster with the slottech brushes vs the wizzard.

I have not put much time into the mixed brushes, but will test them this summer


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## rholmesr (Oct 8, 2010)

slotking said:


> I think if the JB were a little taller they would right there as well.
> 
> I race with some fast people, so getting speed out of my cars is always very important.
> 
> ...


This matches my experience as well. 

I don't think it's been mentioned but the slottech brush OD is slightly larger than the others and these brushes fit very close in the chassis pockets. I think this might be beneficial in keeping the brushes square to the comm a little better. 

I have had to fiddle with a couple of old/used chassis to get the slottech brushes to fit. These were chassis that had slight melting most likely from days gone by...


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