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[highace10]

Hello,

Just a quick question.....

I have heard of people ripping things arpart to get motors of different sizes. Things like drills etc.

Any other places that people have used?

Thanks

Ace

[bigfella]

Hi Ace

I have heard that some people use car windscreen wiper motors, vacuum cleaner motors etc etc. You will find that most household appliances usually have the same types of motors.

Regards David

[FullLeatherJacket]

Old camcorders, CD-ROM and DVD drives, CD/cassette players, VCR machines - you'll find that many of these have small 5v or 12v DC motors, even if they are mains electrical devices. The motors which vibrate mobile phones are also popular, but be aware that some motors weren't designed to have their speed controlled by the sort of ESCs we have in model boating, and that some are definitely NOT suitable for models due to their very high speeds and enormous stall currents (I'm thinking of the Johnson 12-18v motors which you find in some drills and screwdrivers).
FLJ

[Martin (Admin)]

You can get some very high quality motors out of old computer equipment, not so much with the modern cheap stuff but old printers are well worth skinning a knuckle for. Yes and as BigFella says cars are a good source of low speed and quiet motors.... you might even get a speed controller with the heater fan! 

Martin

[chingdevil]

If people want fans for smoke units for any of there models then any PC equipment has some really nice ones in them. There are some really small ones mounted over video cards and cpu's and they are often 5v. As Martin has said printers are a good source also old scanners, which are also a good source for a flat piece of glass.

Need to be aware that very often motor speed controllers on cars are wound resistors, nothing fancy. I found this out when I had one go up in smoke in my old Mondeo

Brian

[Circlip]

       How sad that te government keeps telling us and is thinking of bringing in legislation to teach us to do
       something that us True modellers have known and carried out for years? - RECYCLING! Its just A pity
       that SWMBO doesn't see it that way too :angel:

[djrobbo]

Hi guys........speed of car heater fans is normally three speed one of which is direct from the battery i.e 12 volts gives high speed and the other two or three speeds are controlled by resistitors of varying value to drop the current....so not a lot of use,,,,but the motors are normaly good quality....but some are moulded as part of the fan housing and not a seperate motor ,so check before purchase.......i used to own a garage which specialised in classic car restoration, and fell foul of this a couple of times

                                            regards to all.........bob

[alan colson]

I used a motor from an electric carving knife, the boat cut through the water a treat.

[Bee]

car windows and most car  locks, newer car heaters are better than old, the old ones are very crude and inefficient.
Broken toys.
Printer motors are often steppers - 4 wires - no good.

[Guy Bagley]

i bought a motor ( new never run) via ebay, the listing just described it as a 12 v motor for model,

 i thought for £2.25  i would take a risk,( no mean feat for a tight yorkshireman) 

 i had no idea on the output speed, the spindle size and the number of poles the motor had,i just had a fairly poor quality picture to go by.... - and even after asking several questions the seller could not enlighten me further either, it was just some item in a job lot he bought that ' had to go'

 in the last hour there were still no bids , so i stuck one in, i won the motor for the starting price and paid £2 ontop for postage

when the motor arrived i was pleasantly surprised, it  was fitted with 2 x  6 inch leads for 12v input,, it appeared to be good quality, it was mint condition and by the looks of the commutator had never been run... the thing that startled me on inspection was the number of poles this motor appeared to have,  and the fact it had an internal cooling fan...
 i found a 12v battery and applied the  leads, the motor was high revving and had considerable torque

i was feeling pretty chuffed for my £4.25 outlay...

i later inspected the supply leads to find they were shrouded in heat resistant insulation, so with the cooling fan i guess this was used in some hot location.....i fitted it to my latest model and all is good, speed is ideal and current consumption is acceptable, but it got me thinking -where had this motor been manufactured ?

there is no makers name but several weeks later whilst at work i spotted an electric paint stripping tool, - the electric type with heater elements and a fan ( looks like a hairdryer shaped tool )

the tool was cold so i peered down the barrel of the machine,  - i had seen a motor pretty similar before, so if your tool packs up then their maybe these are not all 240v motors,maybe its worth stripping an old gun apart at the end of its days to see if its a low voltage mortor and it its still a runner !

[warpspawn]

hi here I'm new to modelboat mayhem, but i also like taking thing to pieces.
today i took possesion of a 12v kids quad with stripped gears for nothing when i took it apart i was surprised to find 2 RS-550SF motors, they also have Small internal fans,
but there appears to be a small circuit board with graphite rods wound with copper wire soldered between the motor poles and the power leads i have no idea what it does.
i tried both motors with 12v and they work great forward and backwards, but when i put a 9v battery on the leads nothing.
is there anyone that can enlighten me.
Ian

[grasshopper]

In my humble experience - and the fact there were three girls in the house, I've dismantled a fair range and number of hairdriers - we seem to buy new ones every year...all of the ones that were 'broken' had mabuchi type motors in them - the heating coils seem to be part of the step down for the voltage and then there was what looked like a diode - this I  presume blocks half the A.C. making it a D.C. supply. The motors were usually ok, but the heating wire (nichrome) used to burn through.

cassette players - especially 'walkman' types good for little motors. old vcr's good - a lot of pc disc drives - old cheap film cameras - mostly mabuchi motors.
It was in one of the earlier boat mags that had an article about mabuchi -   their world-wide production of motors something like 2 billion units per annum

[malcolmfrary]

but there appears to be a small circuit board with graphite rods wound with copper wire soldered between the motor poles and the power leads i have no idea what it does.

The bits of graphite are probably ferrite (same stuff as the aerials in MW transistor radios) and with the windings make chokes to help reduce radio interference.

[bosun]

I have a few motors given to me by a friend, they were originally in the type of bath lift that are supplied by social services, the size is aprox 3 inches long, the only writing is LVM Ltd 12volt dc, I have tried them on a 12 battery and they run quite fast on a 6 volt battery the speed reduces by about half, but they are absolutaly silent. I have another that is a bit larger about 4 i/2 inches long, the label says SWIS dc Motor 13.2 v 35 watt 3000 rpm, can anybody shed a light on these, or tell me if they are suitable for a tug of about 36 inches.
Many Thanks
Bosun

[Bryan Young]

brian_c put me on to this one. For my larger and heavier boats (100lb plus) I try to get seat (chairs as opposed to "Seat" cars) motors. The ones out of old Ford Grenadas are great...and come with their own flexi coupling. Such a shame that so many scrapyards have had to close down because of elf'n'safety (and pollution) regs. The "new" dismantlers" who actually charge to take away an old car can then have the gall to try and sell a heater motor for £10. No wonder they all seem to have "bling" cars!

[explorer750]

For smaller models (plastic convertions) you can get two tiny motors and a speed controller from those mini IR helicopters like the picco z. If geared down they will run a small (I mean tiny) warship at scale speed for about 15 mins on the lipos that it is supplied with.

[grasshopper]

If you look at the price of all those electric drill / screwdriver kits - you end up with motor, batteries, charger, speed controller and gearbox for a few quid.

[red181]

What can people suggest for a motor that will give a heavy boat a planing speed, so high revving? I was thinkiing vacuum cleaner, but they are mains 240v, as are other appliances. These where mentioned earlier, does that mean the motors are not actually 240v ac?

[lgosdset]

I took apart a playstation controler to get the motor inside once, still got it laying around somewhere, can't think of any use for it.

[explorer750]

What can people suggest for a motor that will give a heavy boat a planing speed, so high revving? I was thinking vacuum cleaner, but they are mains 240v, as are other appliances.

I used a motor from a hand held vacuum cleaner that turned out to be a 550 size. As for the planning motor try a Graupner 700BB turbo run mine on 14.4v and get 14,200 RPM offload.

[malcolmfrary]

I was thinkiing vacuum cleaner, but they are mains 240v, as are other appliances. These where mentioned earlier, does that mean the motors are not actually 240v ac?

Most mains appliances are intended for use "dry" and indoors, so to keep costs down have 240V motors and the simplest possible controls (i.e. a switch).  Steps have to be taken with outdoor appliances to ensure the survival of the customer - this can be multiple insulation, transformer isolation, dropping to a low voltage.

[Joystick]

I've found that most hair dryers have a DC motor in them... dont ask how I found out .  They also have a rectifier conected to the heat element to supply DC to the motor ( most Ive come across are about 540 stlye).

I've also found a good use for the fan unit. Hovercraft..very small and light with lots of air 

[malcolmfrary]

In the case of hair dryers and similar hot air devices, the heating element will be used as a speed limiter.  We have generally moved away from resistance controllers because they waste energy by dissipating heat, but this is exactly what is wanted with a hair dryer.
In the case of a dead hair dryer, the element will not be totally destroyed, and the left-overs could find a use in a smoke unit.  (measure length, divide by 240, multiply by whatever voltage yo intend to use, this will be about the length you want for a heating element)

[mogsy]

I'm just dying to rip apart one of thos 99p milk frothers for coffee from Ikea.
I'll try and post a pic later but my bet is one of these (takes 2 x AA cells) is an ideal power unit for a plastic kit static to r/c conversion.

Any one tried this yet??
I'll post a pic later once I'm back from aforementioned home of cheap nordic furniture and bric-a-brac.

Mogs

[John W E]

Hi there, if you want to deprive your son of his X-box - the hand controllers control two small motors - that make them vibraaaaaaaaaaaaatte when the handsets go duff....dont bin them, open them up - I am sure they are either 6-12 volt motors - about 1 inch diameter and about 1/2 long. Good little motors.

aye
john e
bluebird