tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
Henk Kaan started with the plans for the solenoid motor, from these he modified and improved the design: The drawings are clear, and the rest was “improving by doing”. The microswitch you used seems to be smaller than the switch that I could get. Therefore I looked for a new position for the switch. The … Read more
Confining the magnetic field of the solenoid motor stator is a significant improvement. The force increases and hence the rotational speed increases. This is the first of a number of improvements to the solenoid motor. However, as you can see from this video it is a significant improvement: Here I have just used 0.9mm thick … Read more
Having built a number of these motors, my thoughts have turned to improving the solenoid motor. The single piston solenoid motor runs very smoothly using a single 9V battery. However, when I moved to the next motor I made some force measurements with the armature and stator. The force was just 0.22N for this small … Read more
There are a number of different types of electric motor. Also there are a design factors when considering the different types of electric motor: Application Environment Commutation method Duty cycle No-load speed Weight Stall torque Lifetime Load (operating) point Torque ripple Power source Controllability Envelope (volume) Heat dissipation AC Induction Motors These are generally used … Read more
Electric motor failure stems mostly from damaged bearings or stator windings. However, there are a number of other reasons they can fail. The most common failures in order are: bearing failure stator winding failure overheating power supply anomaly humidity contamination unusual mechanical loads Bearing Failure The main reasons for bearing failure are: improper lubrication electrical … Read more
There are numerous applications of electric motors and the type of noise produced by each may be very specific to the installation and type of motor. There are a number of reasons why a motor could be perceived as being noisy: The loudness level of the sound Periodic variation of sound pitch due to motor … Read more
I needed to accurately machine a motor spindle so that I could drive a centrifugal fan at high speed. I actually did this in two stages. First machining a small brass spindle with a shoulder that would fit onto the motor spindle. This part has a shoulder and a thread so that the fan can … Read more
The Emco Unimat motor failure for the second time, this one was slightly different in that I switched the motor on and the house earth leak detector tripped. The first time the motor failed it was because the brushes had just worn out. A simple resistance measurement between the earth and neutral shows 50kOhm. This … Read more
When designing the V-Twin solenoid I thought I should try and improve the solenoid. One area of particular concern was that for this one I used small permanent magnets in the armature, useful as it means I can make the engine double acting, but the downside is that it only acts over half the stroke … Read more
After making a solenoid motor in a couple of afternoons in the workshop I thought I should go for something rather more sophisticated. I wondered what a Solenoid V-Twin Harley Davidson motor would be like? One of the first objectives was to measure and improve the force developed by the solenoid. This would then allow … Read more