Toy motor kit

Years ago my dad returned from a trip with a gift for me. I think that he went to Detroit and possibly got it at the Henry Ford Museum. It was a small box, about the size that checks come in. The parts made a simple DC motor. The lid of the box was the base of the motor. I had to wind the armature and fasten the brushes and make the commutator. It worked too! Pretty cool stuff for a 7 year old.
Anything like that still available?
Bob

Bob wrote:
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It is 'way cooler to do it yourself, yes?
Can you locate a couple of safety pins, some copper wire and a magnet?
<http://www.miniscience.com/projects/Magnet_Motor_kit/Magnet_Motor_LL.jpg
--Winston

On Sun, 2 Jan 2011 06:55:57 -0800 (PST), the renowned Bob
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Yes, I've seen them for sale in the past year or two.. maybe at a museum gift shop or something like that. Here are a couple:
(Amazon.com product link shortened) (Amazon.com product link shortened)
How about a Stirling?
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Spehro Pefhany wrote:
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I bought a couple of these a few years ago from Solar Engines / PM Research.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF15NA4vR2w

I don't see the motors on their new website but both went together easily and they run flawlessly.
--Winston

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Here's a couple sources for similar kits
http://www.kitsusa.net/phpstore/index.php
Some of their electric motor kits: http://www.kitsusa.net/phpstore/html/EDU-3040-Tree-of-Knowledge-Mighty-Motor-Kit-educational---science---electronic---technology-toys-and-kits-1182.html
http://www.kitsusa.net/phpstore/html/LK-806-DC-Electric-Motor-Kit-non-solder-456.html
http://www.kitsusa.net/phpstore/html/MX-902--Electric-Powered-4-Set-Action-Lab-Kit-non-soldering-kit-4569.html
Also:
http://www.sciencehobby.com /
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXE677&P=Y
RogerN

A friend of mine sent this. The video starts out something about making fishing rods, but then at about 45 seconds he shows re-calibrating his dial caliper. I wouldn't have thought of this myself, but I'm going to give it a go
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGj32Dc2TCI

ps...Thanks Arno. Good tip!!

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HA-HA! I share his sympathies. <g>

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hahahah
I use a similar technique with any device that can cause more loss or damage than it costs to replace or fix correctly.

    --Here's another fun place to shop for that sort of thing: http://store.exploratorium.edu /

On 01/02/2011 06:55 AM, Bob wrote:
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A web search on "educational motor kit" came up with a flood of likely-looking links. I build this one with #1 son, years ago: http://www.hometrainingtools.com/dc-motor-kit/p/EL-KIT02 /.
The one on the right here: http://www.simplemotor.com/ is a marvel. You can build one of these with two paper clips, a magnet, and some wire (the secret is that you scrape off a half-turn of insulation from each side of the coil leads -- get the phasing right, and it'll make torque any time they come into contact with the paper clips). It's the least number of parts I've ever seen make a motor -- at least a motor that can spin itself.

Thanks Guys. I think that the demise of my motor was when I hooked it up to my Lionel train transformer. AC and 20 volts were not good for long life.
Bob

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An even simpler motor---a piece of wire bent to shape, a battery, a magnet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOdboRYf1hM

Not terribly useful though.
As a kid I was fascinated by electricity in general, and electric motors and electromagnets in particular. Tried to make a cork-and-pin motor using the instructions from my brother's 7th grade science book. Failed miserably. The electromagnets I made worked, though! (Of course my parents were ticked off because every battery in every flashlight in the house was quickly dead, in my pursuit of knowledge and fun.) -- Best -- Terry

On 01/03/2011 01:17 PM, Terry wrote:
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OH MY GOD!!!
That is just too cool. Now I want to know the theory behind it...
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You know, I don't remember ever being without a battery to run down in the pursuit of Science. But then, my dad felt strongly that the way to educate a child was to give them plenty of building material and stay out of the way.

Tim Wescott wrote:
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There's something we have in common.
My dad was a trainman and he always seemed to have a gently-used lantern battery that he would give me for my experiments.

On Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:17:52 -0600, Terry
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=========Not a kit but take a look at Cloth-Harper's Electricity Book For Boys    22075    $26.95 Electrical Things Boys Like to Make            23241    $11.95 Mod Elec-Crystal Set                                23276    $6.95 http://www.lindsaybks.com/bks3/jxtal/index.html
Website is http://www.lindsaybks.com/ http://www.lindsaybks.com/prod/allbks.html books in catalog [free] but some not on website.
more advance but may be of interest http://www.lindsaybks.com/bks2/vxtal/index.html
-- Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

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I remember those back in the late '40s, but it was more fun and educational starting with nails, wood, a strip cut from a tin can, eithe a horse shoe magnet from a telephone magneto and about fifty feet of copper wire. One other option was to wind the field magnets if you didn't have the magneto magnet. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

    --Here's another one for ya: http://safetypinmotor.com /     --There's an even simpler one but I can't find a photo; basically a battery sitting on a piece of tinfoil and topped with a bent wire that connects top to foil; rotation due to left hand rule or some such.

    --Oh yeah here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhaYLnjkf1E&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Radio Shack had come nice electronic kits. WIreless mike, and some other ones that I built. Came in a clear/red split box that became the circuit board and base. I learned soldering, identifying resistors, transistors and caps from these. They worked too, well so- so.
Kept me busy for days as a kid. Probably about 10 or so at the time. Good stuff.
Bob

Bob wrote:
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Known as 'P-Box' kits.
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