Is this black withe a little nylon gear on it? I seem to recall the bruses were not copper, but berrilium copper with small carbon inset pieces in them. Normally they lost their carbon bits and the strip then broke where it used to be.
If all you want to do is to get it sort of working almost anything springy and conductive will do, piano wire etc, but the commutator will wear fast and it will spark a lot!
Brian
That's exactly the one John! If you look closely you will see the thin "bru shes" on the comm. - one on the top and one below. As Nightjar says, they a re probably phosphor bronze not copper as I originally thought. They are as near as dammit 0.1mm thick (I only have a cheap vernier calliper so can't measure accurately) and can't see me hammering a piece of copper pipe down to this thickness! Phosphor bronze draught excluder sounds just about right, Ian Jackson has o fferred to send me a bit but I can't sort out his e-mail address. If you ar e reading this Ian, can you give me a clue? I'm also exploring cannibalising old torch contacts, thanks Jim K for that idea, and searching model engineering sites on t'internet. To those who have offered other electric motors, can I just say that this i s only a demonstration model, but thanks for your help anyway. And a thank you to everybody who has replied, I have found your responses v ery constructive and helpful.
Cheers Pete
Just for your information, it's a small, three pole armature, open frame, series wound universal motor using a coil to generate the field. The wire appears to be cotton insulated. It's rated at four to six volts AC or DC. The brushes don't have carbon inserts, but are simply bent metal strips. Very primitive with very low power and torque, but well worth keeping to show how an electric motor works.
The cast frame is black, the pole pieces and armature are bare metal, the cotton is somewhere between pink and beige, and there is a pulley on the drive shaft for compatibility with various makes of steam engine and accessories.
There may have been later models such as you describe, but the only ones I remember with a small black pinion were used in Scalextric racing cars. A very similar motor with a worm on the shaft was used by Triang.
In message , petek writes
Just remove the "REMOVETHIS". However, anything before the @ will work, so just use it as it is if you want (nothing gets thrown out before I see it).
ISTR buying some springy phosphor bronze wire from a model railway shop; they use it for making contact with the wheels to pick up the current; - might be worth a try. Otherwise what about the terminal strip from a
4.5V 'pocket lamp' battery? (Do they still make these?)
Hi all Well, Ian Jackson's phosphor bronze draught excluder strip was exactly what was required. Drilled hole (sandwiched between two scraps of wood), cut to shape with a strong pair of scissors, rounded corners off with a small fil e and hey presto - a new "brush". All that remains is to explain how an ele ctric motor works to my grandson! Thanks to everybody, especially Ian. Cheers Pete
In message , petek writes
Please to know it worked! :o))
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