My Motor

My Motor

My motor basically consists of the main five parts listed in the previous post, a.k.a:

• Field Magnet
• Armature
• Commutator/Brushes
• Shaft (Axle)
• DC Battery

And an extra piece, the loom, to pull the car. With all of these parts working together, it can pull a car four meters. As I explained how each piece works in the previous post, here I will explain how I built each piece and how they flow so that it can spin.

Field Magnet

My field magnet consists of a steel strap bent into a "U" shape that is around 5 inches wide. I then wrapped 14 gauge single strand (must be single strand) wire around it to form and electromagnet. The wrapping must be parallel to the strands next to it and underneath it. Any crossovers in the wrapping, it could cancel out the entire magnetic field. The wire must be single strand as the multiple strands could get crossed over and also cancel out the entire field. The single strand makes it a lot more difficult to wrap, but it will also actually work, so that's good. Using a strong vice like I did will make this job a hell of a lot easier (excuse my unscientific language there). Mine turned out like this:

Armature

The armature is another electromagnet that spins above the field magnet. It is made up of two penny nails wrapped in 24 gauge magnet wire, and then is attached to the commutator. I made it by taping the two nails together with electrical tape, and then wrapping it with the magnet wire. The same wrapping rules apply as with the field magnet: no crossing over. Also, I sanded off the enamel at the ends so that the electricity could flow through the copper on the commutator. Here's mine:

Commutator/Brushes

The commutator consists of something round to go around the shaft (mine is a cork), and two pieces of copper. I made mine by drilling a hole in the cork in order to get it on the rod, and then when it was on, i taped two pieces of copper around it. The two pieces of copper should have spaces in between them, but not have them too large because the brushes should be able to touch the metal at all times. The commutator is attached to the armature by the wires from the armature. These wires must be soldered on, and have had the enamel scraped off. The brushes consist of two pieces of multi strand lamp wire, flaring out to look like paintbrushes. These must touch the copper at all times, to allow electricity to flow into the copper and then into the armature. 

Shaft (Axle)

The shaft is the metal rod that holds the commutator, armature, and in my case, the loom. This is the rod as seen from above: 

DC Battery

The DC battery I used is 6V (fun fact: 6V is half a car battery!) and powers the motor. 

(Double fun fact: in much older cars, they did use 6V batteries. So I surely hope mine can simply pull a toy car!)

Overall Motor and Final Connections

In the end, one brush connects to the battery, one connects to one end of the field magnet, and the other end of the field magnet connects to the other end of the battery. This completes the circuit, sends the electricity through the field magnet, into one brush, into the copper, down through the armature and back, then to the other brush and back to the battery, making the motor spin!

 My final motor.