Other Workshops: A Twin Cylinder Solenoid Electric Motor and some Very Cool Craftsmanship

This project caught my eye for a couple of reasons:  

First, it is the product of a very cool metal shop and a very skilled craftsman.  It is fun and inspiring just to watch Maceij build this motor.  We see great precision in the metal cuts, speedy tap and die work, and some great PC board technique.  The use of an open flame on the heat shrink material was, well a bit courageous. 

Second, this is a far more sophisticated version of the trivial electric motor that my son Billy and I built 17 years ago (I still have it!), following up on inspiration from Alan Yates VK2ZAY (see below).   With Alan's device we turned on power to the commutator by just sanding away the insulation on one side of the enameled wiring.  Maceij takes a much more sophisticated approach, with carefully milled switches and opto controllers turning on and off power at the right time to each of the solenoids.    

 

Maceij's YouTube channel has many other projects, many like this one:  https://www.youtube.com/@maciejnowakprojects 

Thanks to HackaDay for the heads up. 

Another Trivial Electric Motor

The above video popped up on the BBC channel a few days ago.  Three cheers for the Beeb for doing this, but I'd like to point out that we have been building Trivial Electric Motors for at least 16 years.  We were inspired by Alan Yates VK2ZAY W7ZAY. 

 Below is a video from 2006: 

And there are several links (and a video) about Alan and the Trivial Electric Motor here: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Trivial+Electric+Motor

Thanks again Alan!