When I was a kid my dad and I built a homemade electric motor from
plans in a book or magazine.

Components were a frame made of a cut and bent tin can, an axle made
out of a nail, and windings made from magnet wire.

The wiring on the armature had a lot of scotch tape for some reason.

There were windings on both the motor and the tin-can frame, and
commutation was from brushes made out of little pieces of brass sheet.

Does anyone recognize this project, and know of a website or the title
of a book that will help me recreate it with my kids?

Tim.

This is totally refreshing. A nice, innocent request for information.
Tim, brace yourself for what the likes of Zick and Andocles and Uncle
Al will respond.

I don't know about this project, but I made an isomorphic one, it was
a telegraph, a nail pounded into a block of wood wrapped with copper
wire and a thin strip of metal coming out over it to form a receiver.
A block of wood with a thin strip nailed down at one end and free on
the other which can be pushed down to a contact for a sender, all
appropriate connections made with copper wire, and a battery in the
circuit, of course.

Hofstadter stated that his AHA! moment when he was young was to see 3
3's written out, forming self-reference, thus orienting himself towards
that subject for life. Here's an expanded version:

4 4 4 4 4 fours

3 3 3 3 threes

2 2 two twos

1 the most elegant case

How do you show zero zeroes??

My AHA moment was when I was around 3 and asked my Mom what caused day
and night, and she took a spherical pincusion she had and put it next
to an incandescent lamp, stuck a pin in it and rotated it, showing it
go in and out of the light. She only had a high-school education, but
she would have made a better teacher than 99.9999999999999999999% of
what supposedly passes for one out there now.

So anyway, the usual disclaimer stands. No replies will ever be looked
at to this post. While cheating myself out of the good ones, if any,
there are just too many Andocleses and Uncle Al's and Zicks infecting
this forum like rats out in our barn. What a shame. Might pay to read
the final few chapters of Hofstader's "Metamagical Themas" to see what
you jerks are cheating everybody out of.

Have a nice day. Address your issues. Please display only appropriate
behavior. Define "appropriate" yourself.

Toodle-Lewd-Wench-Sky

EOP

wrote:

When I was a kid my dad and I built a homemade electric motor from
plans in a book or magazine.

Components were a frame made of a cut and bent tin can, an axle made
out of a nail, and windings made from magnet wire.

The wiring on the armature had a lot of scotch tape for some reason.

There were windings on both the motor and the tin-can frame, and
commutation was from brushes made out of little pieces of brass sheet.

Does anyone recognize this project, and know of a website or the title
of a book that will help me recreate it with my kids?

Tim.

I certainly recall doing the same thing. I think there was even a kit
in a little red box that had the wire, etc. and an instruction sheet;
the box formed the base.

Maybe something here would suffice:

http://scientificsonline.com/search....=motor&x=5&y=7

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

CJT wrote:

wrote:

When I was a kid my dad and I built a homemade electric motor from
plans in a book or magazine.

Components were a frame made of a cut and bent tin can, an axle made
out of a nail, and windings made from magnet wire.

The wiring on the armature had a lot of scotch tape for some reason.

There were windings on both the motor and the tin-can frame, and
commutation was from brushes made out of little pieces of brass sheet.

Does anyone recognize this project, and know of a website or the title
of a book that will help me recreate it with my kids?

Tim.

I certainly recall doing the same thing. I think there was even a kit
in a little red box that had the wire, etc. and an instruction sheet;
the box formed the base.

Maybe something here would suffice:

http://scientificsonline.com/search....=motor&x=5&y=7

Hate to reply to myself, but in fact this one looks a bit like what
I recall:

http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3081416

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

wrote:

This is totally refreshing. A nice, innocent request for information.
Tim, brace yourself for what the likes of Zick and Andocles and Uncle
Al will respond.

I don't know about this project, but I made an isomorphic one, it was
a telegraph, a nail pounded into a block of wood wrapped with copper
wire and a thin strip of metal coming out over it to form a receiver.
A block of wood with a thin strip nailed down at one end and free on
the other which can be pushed down to a contact for a sender, all
appropriate connections made with copper wire, and a battery in the
circuit, of course.

Hey! I did that one, too!


Hofstadter stated that his AHA! moment when he was young was to see 3
3's written out, forming self-reference, thus orienting himself towards
that subject for life. Here's an expanded version:

4 4 4 4 4 fours

3 3 3 3 threes

2 2 two twos

1 the most elegant case

How do you show zero zeroes??

My AHA moment was when I was around 3 and asked my Mom what caused day
and night, and she took a spherical pincusion she had and put it next
to an incandescent lamp, stuck a pin in it and rotated it, showing it
go in and out of the light. She only had a high-school education, but
she would have made a better teacher than 99.9999999999999999999% of
what supposedly passes for one out there now.

So anyway, the usual disclaimer stands. No replies will ever be looked
at to this post. While cheating myself out of the good ones, if any,
there are just too many Andocleses and Uncle Al's and Zicks infecting
this forum like rats out in our barn. What a shame. Might pay to read
the final few chapters of Hofstader's "Metamagical Themas" to see what
you jerks are cheating everybody out of.

Have a nice day. Address your issues. Please display only appropriate
behavior. Define "appropriate" yourself.

Toodle-Lewd-Wench-Sky

EOP



--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

wrote:
When I was a kid my dad and I built a homemade electric motor from
plans in a book or magazine.

Components were a frame made of a cut and bent tin can, an axle made
out of a nail, and windings made from magnet wire.

The wiring on the armature had a lot of scotch tape for some reason.

There were windings on both the motor and the tin-can frame, and
commutation was from brushes made out of little pieces of brass sheet.

Does anyone recognize this project, and know of a website or the title
of a book that will help me recreate it with my kids?

My son has his physics students make this simple motor in class:

http://www.physics.isu.edu/physdemos...c/smplmtr.html

All you need is a D battery, paper clips, a small magnet, tape, and some
enameled wire (which can be scavenged from an old transformer).

Do a Google search for paper clip motor and you'll find several
variations on this design.

CJT wrote:

I certainly recall doing the same thing. I think there was even a kit
in a little red box that had the wire, etc. and an instruction sheet;
the box formed the base.

I remember building a variation as a child, suspended a bit of stiff wire
off a hook, with the bottom dipped into a little mercury in the bottom of
one of mums pans (discovered interesting things about amalgams as well that
day - Physics AND Chemistry), pop a small disk magnet into the bottom of
the mercury and hook up a power supply - NOT A CAR BATTERY, IT BOILS THE
MERCURY (I speak from experience).

Probably best done in a well ventilated space.

Regards, Dan.

wrote:

When I was a kid my dad and I built a homemade electric motor from
plans in a book or magazine.

Components were a frame made of a cut and bent tin can, an axle made
out of a nail, and windings made from magnet wire.

The wiring on the armature had a lot of scotch tape for some reason.

There were windings on both the motor and the tin-can frame, and
commutation was from brushes made out of little pieces of brass sheet.

Does anyone recognize this project, and know of a website or the title
of a book that will help me recreate it with my kids?

Tim.

You can simplify it by using one or more of those Neodymium Iron Boron
(NdFeB) super strong magnets that you can buy now instead of windings, for
the fixed magnets. This way it will go better even if it isn't very well
made.

Get a cork for use as a former, and use a piece of heavy gauge copper or
brass as an axle, so the axle won't keep sticking to the magnets. First
cut two grooves the length of the cork on opposite sides, about 5mm (3/16")
deep. Then figure out a way of sticking the copper / brass axle through
the axis of the cork. Then wind a few feet of single conductor insulated
wire (e.g. conductors out of phone wire) around the cork, up one groove and
down the other, repeat until slots are full of wire. Now for the
comutator, build up an insulating layer of adhesive tape around the axle on
the end that the wires stick out. Build the layer of tape up until it is
maybe 1.5mm (1/16") thick. Strip the ends of the wire where they are
adjacent to the tape section and somehow tie them to opposite sides of the
insulated section of the axle so that each end of the winding is a bare
wire running parallel to the axle on diametrically opposite sides,
insulated from the axle by the sticky tape but bare on the outside for the
brushes to touch. Fit the axle into some bearings which can be just paper
clips bent to form small loops which slip over the axle, and fixed to a
wooden board or tin can. Now you need to make "brushes" which can be just
two more pieces of telephone wire which have the ends stripped and bent so
that at a certain angle, one of these wires touches tangentially onto each
of the ends of the winding on the commutator. Position a strong magnet so
that the pole points radially through the winding towards the centre of the
cork when the cork is rotated to the position where that the brushes touch
the ends of the winding. It should go pretty well when powered from a
single C or D size alkaline cell. You need to spin it gently to get it
going.

Chris

In article ,
Chris Jones wrote:
wrote:

When I was a kid my dad and I built a homemade electric motor from
plans in a book or magazine.

Components were a frame made of a cut and bent tin can, an axle made
out of a nail, and windings made from magnet wire.

The wiring on the armature had a lot of scotch tape for some reason.

There were windings on both the motor and the tin-can frame, and
commutation was from brushes made out of little pieces of brass sheet.

Does anyone recognize this project, and know of a website or the title
of a book that will help me recreate it with my kids?

Tim.

You can simplify it by using one or more of those Neodymium Iron Boron
(NdFeB) super strong magnets that you can buy now instead of windings, for
the fixed magnets. This way it will go better even if it isn't very well
made.

If I were a kid, I think I'd rather make the coil by hand. Then
the phenomenon of magnetism can be shown.

I also liked making a battery using a potato but I don't
recall what I powered.

/BAH

On a sunny day (Fri, 09 Sep 2005 18:44:08 -0500) it happened James Jones
wrote in :

My son has his physics students make this simple motor in class:

http://www.physics.isu.edu/physdemos...c/smplmtr.html

All you need is a D battery, paper clips, a small magnet, tape, and some
enameled wire (which can be scavenged from an old transformer).
Good trick, picture had me baffled for a moment!
To shave 180 degr of the isolation :-)

wrote in message
om...
In article ,
Chris Jones wrote:
wrote:

When I was a kid my dad and I built a homemade electric motor from
plans in a book or magazine.

Components were a frame made of a cut and bent tin can, an axle made
out of a nail, and windings made from magnet wire.

The wiring on the armature had a lot of scotch tape for some reason.

There were windings on both the motor and the tin-can frame, and
commutation was from brushes made out of little pieces of brass sheet.

Does anyone recognize this project, and know of a website or the title
of a book that will help me recreate it with my kids?

Tim.

You can simplify it by using one or more of those Neodymium Iron Boron
(NdFeB) super strong magnets that you can buy now instead of windings,
for
the fixed magnets. This way it will go better even if it isn't very well
made.

If I were a kid, I think I'd rather make the coil by hand. Then
the phenomenon of magnetism can be shown.

I also liked making a battery using a potato but I don't
recall what I powered.

/BAH

I had a clock that was powered by potatos when I was a kid.

Dan Mills wrote in
:

CJT wrote:

I certainly recall doing the same thing. I think there was even a kit
in a little red box that had the wire, etc. and an instruction sheet;
the box formed the base.

I remember building a variation as a child, suspended a bit of stiff
wire off a hook, with the bottom dipped into a little mercury in the
bottom of one of mums pans (discovered interesting things about amalgams
as well that day - Physics AND Chemistry), pop a small disk magnet into
the bottom of the mercury and hook up a power supply - NOT A CAR
BATTERY, IT BOILS THE MERCURY (I speak from experience).

Probably best done in a well ventilated space.

As mercury vapor is very deadly, best not done at all.

One would have to be 'mad as a hatter' to play with hot mercury.

It is bad enough at room temperature. If you have a spill in your room and
do not clean it all up, and spend a significant amount of time in there
each day, you will eventually accumulate enough mercury in your body to
cause serious problems. This is because mercury has a high vapor pressure
at room temperature.




--
bz

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap

bz wrote:
As mercury vapor is very deadly, best not done at all.
One would have to be 'mad as a hatter' to play with hot mercury.

Indeed, when you work in mercury vapours every day, like the mad hatter,
it's toxic. However this experiment will not pose a significant risk when
done once or twice in a ventilated area.

indeed very clever

Paul (EE)

Jan Panteltje wrote:

On a sunny day (Fri, 09 Sep 2005 18:44:08 -0500) it happened James Jones
wrote in :


My son has his physics students make this simple motor in class:

http://www.physics.isu.edu/physdemos...c/smplmtr.html

All you need is a D battery, paper clips, a small magnet, tape, and some
enameled wire (which can be scavenged from an old transformer).

Good trick, picture had me baffled for a moment!
To shave 180 degr of the isolation :-)

This site has two motors: one from 1938 and the other from a boy scout
manual. They both look like stuff I built in the '50s.
I also have my copy of the "Boy Mechanic" published in 1952 by Popular
Mechanics that has "5 Toy Motors" in it: a tin and nail, a synchronus,
an induction, series and mercury (yikes). If anyone is interested I
will gladly scan the book and foreward the section to you.

Richard

The Boy Mechanic I and II are both available as modern reprints.

spudnuty wrote:
This site has two motors: one from 1938 and the other from a boy scout
manual. They both look like stuff I built in the '50s.
I also have my copy of the "Boy Mechanic" published in 1952 by Popular
Mechanics that has "5 Toy Motors" in it: a tin and nail, a synchronus,
an induction, series and mercury (yikes). If anyone is interested I
will gladly scan the book and foreward the section to you.

Richard

Mike,
I checked Amazon and the PM site and found no mention of the Boy
Mechanic. I would be really interested in where to get a copy. I've
been looking for one since the '60s.
Googling it I found that there were originally 4 volumes.
Richard

Opps the URL is:
http://altervistas.com/sites/weird/60/
The second page sounds a lot like what you're looking for.
Richard

In article .com,
spudnuty wrote:

| I checked Amazon and the PM site and found no mention of the Boy
| Mechanic. I would be really interested in where to get a copy. I've
| been looking for one since the '60s.
| Googling it I found that there were originally 4 volumes.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12655

Seems to have volume 1 ...

The public domain is a wonderful thing. If only the US Government
would stop selling Disney extensions for Mickey Mouse ...

I fondly remember reading one of these volumes from my dad's bookshelf
back in the 70s ...


--
Doug McLaren, The modem is the message.

Doug,
Wow thanks.
This Boy Mechanic is similar but not the one that I have. Mine has 500
projects and was published by Popular Mechanics starting in 1913 to
1952 (the one I have). It seems to be projects out of old PMs.
The one from Gutenberg is wonderful. I love the front illustration of
the kid strapped into a Wright type glider and the illustration of the
glide path over RR tracks and houses. Can you imagine! Modern kids were
disappoionted that their Harry Potter brooms wouldn't fly.
I'd love to get Vol. II.
Richard

Opps the URL is:
http://altervistas.com/sites/weird/60/
The second page sounds
a lot like what you're looking for.

Indeed, their "motors page 2"

(more direct URL:
http://bizarrelabs.com/motor2.htm
)

shows what they descrbe as a "classic cub scout motor" and it is
functionally very similar to what I built. It uses nails for the frame
instead of a tin can but otherwise seems extremely similar.
(I certainly remember lotsa scotch tape being part of the
commutator...)

Thanks! I'm sure my kids and I can get one together soon!

Tim.

Look at the bylines. Many, if not most, of those articles are from
PM.

spudnuty wrote:
Doug,
Wow thanks.
This Boy Mechanic is similar but not the one that I have. Mine has 500
projects and was published by Popular Mechanics starting in 1913 to
1952 (the one I have). It seems to be projects out of old PMs.
The one from Gutenberg is wonderful. I love the front illustration of
the kid strapped into a Wright type glider and the illustration of the
glide path over RR tracks and houses. Can you imagine! Modern kids were
disappoionted that their Harry Potter brooms wouldn't fly.
I'd love to get Vol. II.
Richard