Motors

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Athos
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Motors

Post by Athos »

I'm playing about trying to make a windmill. I'd like to motorize it so the blades will spin, but I've never worked with Lego motors before. All I need is a simple motor to turn the blades. Any suggestions on what set I need to buy to accomplish this? I was thinking this would be a good pack to start with: http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=8293-1

Steve
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Ye Olde Republic
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Re: Motors

Post by Ye Olde Republic »

I think you're on the right track, that seems to be a decent motor pack but one thing I do know about LEGO motors is that they are FAST! Like you, I've been wanting to mess around with motorizing parts of my castle buildings just to add a bit more life but my experience tells me that you really need to gear the motor way down. Windmills and water wheels probably look better when they turn in a bit of a lazy fashion instead of looking like a prop engine on a cesna or something. I know that some builders actually modify their motor so they turn slower and I may be interested in doing that because I'm more inclined to use a motor with a low RPM than high rotations. Maybe like you I know that you can put in a series of gears that will slow it but it takes a lot of room to add that many (and large) gears inside of a MOC.
Was it Breadman that did the motorized blacksmith shop at Brickcon last year? Maybe he knows?
I'll sit patiently and hope that somebody here knows too.
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JoshWedin
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Re: Motors

Post by JoshWedin »

Its all about worm gears, gentlemen. You can set up your own or just buy this: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=46220

Its what I use to slow mine down anyway.

Josh
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Athos
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Re: Motors

Post by Athos »

I can't tell what that thing is.

Steve
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Ye Olde Republic
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Re: Motors

Post by Ye Olde Republic »

Worm gears will slow a motor decently? I'll have to give it a try. A worm gear on a 40 tooth gear may be pretty slow.
Trevor

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evilnailman
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Re: Motors

Post by evilnailman »

This is what I use:

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=872-1

If I remember correctly it's a reduction of 40:1 and it's quite compact. I have mine from ages back though, don't know how often it comes up now.

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Legoorci
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Re: Motors

Post by Legoorci »

I know a slow one: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=5225-1
I've got some of them and I was first very unhappy that its slow, but now I like it.
You can see my MoCs on [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/legoorci/]my Flickr Account[/url] and you can see them also on [url=http://legoorci.wordpress.com/]my Blog[/url] where you also can read the stories behind the MoCs...but in german.
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JoshWedin
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Re: Motors

Post by JoshWedin »

Athos wrote:I can't tell what that thing is.

Steve
That's a pre-built gearbox with a worm gear and 24 tooth gear all set up. Of course if you get a worm gear, you can use any size gear to get the speed you want. The gearbox is just easy, since its ready to go. I have also used a train regulator, since it has variable speed control.

Josh
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Ye Olde Republic
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Re: Motors

Post by Ye Olde Republic »

A train regulator is good idea. I have trains so thoroughly blocked out of my mind that I never even considered that.
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Why do I have to add the word "minifig" to my spell checker every time I use it?!

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Sir Nelson
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Re: Motors

Post by Sir Nelson »

Ye Olde Republic wrote:A train regulator is good idea. I have trains so thoroughly blocked out of my mind that I never even considered that.
Yes, the train regulator is a champion in this arena. I built a windmill MOC about 3 years ago using an old 9v motor, and use of the regulator was perfect.
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