My Motor

My Electric Motor:

Supplies:

• 2 spools of 24 gage copper wire
• 14 gage multistrand wire or lamp wire
• 1 rod of fiber glass
• 1 6 volt battery
• Hot glue gun
• 2 large nails
• Many small screws
• Small Washers
• Wire cutters
• Big Washers
• Drill
• Tape
• Sand paper
• 1 saw
• Wood
• 2 chopsticks
• Wood glue
• Soldering iron
• 1 sheet of copper
• 2 6 inch brackets
• 3 thin metal brackets
• 1 medicine canister
• Alligator clips
• A spool and thread

Procedure:

1. Gather all of your materials
2. Take your piece of wood and cut it in half with your saw. This is so that you will be able to join them together later. By cutting it, it will give you a better area to work with. 
3. Aline your pieces of wood nest to each other so that it almost forms a complete square. Next, take the smallest drill part and drill into the side of the wood at a diagonal. Gradually get bigger with the drills to where you re able to fit a chopstick in. When this is complete on both sides, you will be able to insert that chopstick into it. This will allow you to join the two pieces of wood together. 
4. Once you are done with the drill, take the wood glue and apply it to the two sides that you will be connecting and put some clue into the holes that you create with your drill.

   

   Base coil and Armature 

   Before the glue dries, insert both chopsticks in. Set aside and let dry.
5. Next, take 1 spool of 24 gage copper wire and the 2 6 inch brackets. These materials will be creating your base coil. Overlap the brackets so that it forms a U shape. Add a little hot glue to it so that it will stay together when you begin to wrap it. Do not add too much so that it is not flat. 
6. Before you start wrapping, leave a couple inches off the end so that you will be able to connect it to the battery. When winding your base coil, it is important to try to not overlap the layers of the wire. You have to keep going back and forth until you use up the whole spool of wire. When you have very little wire left, make sure that you leave a little sticking out at the other end so that it will be able to continue the circuit. Now your base coil is done. 
7. To make sure that you did it correctly, test it with the 6 volt battery. Since the wire is coated with enamel, you have to either use sand paper or a flame to take it off so that the electricity will flow through. Once that is done, attach each end of the wire to the battery. A way to test it is by taking some

   

   Testing magnet

   thing metal (paper clip) and see if it will be drawn towards it. 
8. The next thing to build is your armature. The materials need for this is the rod of fiberglass, the piece of copper, tape, the other spool of 24 gage wire, the 2 large nails, the pill canister, the hot glue gun, and the soldering iron. First take the fiberglass rod and the 2 nails. Place the 2 nails on either side of the fiberglass so that they are equal distance from the center and perpendicular to the rod. Put a little glue on the nail and rod to secure it into place. Next, take the wire. Leave about 10 inches out and start winding from the middle out to one side. This is very important that the wraps are neat and do not over lap. If it over laps, it will make the magnet weaker.  From the middle go out to one end and then back. Do that one more time. Once that is complete cross over to the other side and do the same thing. When you are wrapping on the other side, make sure that you are wrapping in the same direction or it will cancel out. When the is done come down and cut the wire so it is the same length of the other end.
9. Put is aside and move onto the pill canister. The pill canister will become your

   

   Commutator

   commutator Take the drill and drill a small hole through the center of the bottle. Keep making the hole bigger until you are able to slide the canister onto the rod. Once it is on the rod, take the piece of copper and cut it in half. The copper will go around the canister and this where the brushes will make contact. Cut the copper so that it goes around the bottle but the ends to not touch. Make sure that there are gaps in between the pieces of copper and the gaps should line up with the tips of the nails. Secure the copper by putting a thin piece of tape on the outer sides of the piece of copper the is farther away from the coil.
10. Next, burn the ends of the wire to get the enamel off agin. Then take the soldering iron and join the ends of wire to the sheet of copper that does no have tape. After it dries, you can put another piece of tape on to make sure that it doesn't move. Doing this, it completes the circuit. Now the armature is done. 
11. To test the armature, connect the battery to the copper with alligator clips. Use the paper clip again and see if it stays on the coil. If so, you can move on to the brushes.
12. Next, it is on to the brushes. The brushes make the motor rotate. Take the multi strand wire and cut 2 8 inch pieces of wire using the wire cutters. Then use the wire cutters to take of the plastic covering on the wire to expose the metal. 
13. Now, you have to secure everything to the wooden board to finish working on the brushes. 
14. First,

    

    Vertical view

    measure off to one side and secure the base coil to the board with screws. After that is complete, take your armature and secure it with 2 thin metal brackets so that the coin will be directly over the base coil. Once the base coil and armature are connected, you can finish the brushes. 
15. One end of one multi strand wire is going to connect to one of the base coil's wires. The other one is going to connect to the battery. Take the one that will connect to the base coil and twist this wire with the 24 gage wire sticking out. The other end of the multi strand wire will touch your commutator. 
16. In order to make sure the brushes are secure and do not move. Take the last thin metal bracket and cut it in half. Screw them down on either side of the commutator. Next, weave the wire through the outer hole and up to the top so that it is standing vertical barely touching the copper. Do this on either side. You might have to bend the wire in order to get it just right. 
17. Lastly, attach the spool to either end of the armature. Glue or tape a little over 4 meters

    

    Spool to pull the car

    of thread to the spool. This will allow you to pull the car.
18. Now it is time to test it. Attach the alligator clips to the motor by attaching one to the wire sticking out from the base coil and the other one to the end of one of the brushes. When you do this, you should see your brushes spark against the copper. By doing this, it is completing the circuit and it should make the motor spin. 

When testing your motor, it usually does not work on the first time. It takes a lot of adjusting and correction. With my motor, the most common problem that I had the most was my brushes. I had to keep adjusting it until I got it just right. It also helps to have a battery that functions and not one that is out of power. 

How it Works:

In a motor, there are negative and positive terminals. In my motor, wither side of the base coil represents that. When the motor is suing, it is constantly switching terminals. When the negative part of the armature is on the positive side, it repels off of it because it wants to go to the negative side and vise versa. This keeps happening and what causes the motor to spin.