Motors for Haunt and Halloween Props

There has been a lot of talk about the shortage of electric motors for Halloween prop building since the supply of surplus wiper motors and vent motors has dried up.   For the January meeting of CalHaunts I put together the equivalent of a 10th grade science project to demonstrate some potential haunt prop motors.   After visiting all the usual sources of surplus parts (That post is coming) I gathered what I thought were the best candidates for electric motors to build into props.  Most are 12 volts and less than $20 dollars for the motor.

The benchmark project in mind was the classic Flying Crank Ghost.  Motors needed to be strong enough and slow enough to replace the $50 motor specified by phantasmechanics.

What we ended up with was 7 motors that seem to be good prop building candidates.  Six motors are 12 volts and one is 110 AC.  To demonstrate the available torque I modified each motor to accept a 6" crank arm and tested it using an 8 once weight.

To deal with motors with high RPM, I demonstrated two inexpensive PWM modules available from ebay.com to control motor speed.  (More information on Pulse Width Modulation controllers in a later post.)

Over the next few days I'll do a more detailed post on each motor.

Note:  Thanks to Dennis Griesser (of Wolfstone fame) for these photos and all the closeup photos of motors to come.  (Dennis - Could you please Photoshop away 20 pounds from me next time?)

Motor Test 5

AllElectronics.com DCM-351
 http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/DCM-351/24-VDC-GEAR-MOTOR-W/TURNTABLE/1.html

 

Description:
24 VDC GEAR MOTOR W/ TURNTABLE
Relatively powerful, low-current DC motor and gearbox with a 4.9" diameter plastic (nylon?) turntable with a rubber o-ring circumference that could be used to drive another wheel. Turntable can be removed from motor and rubber ring on turntable can be removed as well. Motor gearbox has a 5/16" diameter shaft that is flatted and splined.

Specs:

• 45RPM @ 24 Vdc, 60mA - operates at 12Vdc at 1/2 speed.
• Drive motor - Mabuchi RS-380SH. 1.1" diameter x 1.67".
• Gearbox - Molon #CHM-2435-1. 2.75" x 3.00" x 0.57" Threaded mounting holes in four corners. 5/16" diameter shaft, flatted and splined.

Price for one - $9.75 Shipping for 1 - 7.00
Price for ten - $9.75 each Shipping for 10 - $7.00

PROS -
Medium Torque
Seller has good shipping policy
Good price
Good customer service
Seems happy in low torque continuous use
Electrical connection are very easy to get to.
This motor had enough torque at 12 volts to spin the 8oz test weight at high rpm with some strain.
Comes with 4.9" plastic wheel.  This should provide lots of easy way to drive loads.
Easy to mount using 4 existing through holes in the gearbox.

CONs -
A bit noisy under load
RPM a bit high at rated 24 volts
Output shaft a bit short

Modifications -
I removed the wheel from the drive shaft.  I did this to demonstrate how easy it was to adapt the ouput shaft.  I used a U-bolt to attach the crank arm to the shaft.  For this test I ran the motor at 12 volts.  RPM at 12 volts is a bit high for a FCG but for a spider or other animation this motor at 12 volts should be a good choice.

The ideal solution would be to use a PWM module with this motor and 24 volts.  This will give you good torque over a wide RPM range.

Comments - I have not tried this yet, but repacking the gearbox with a heavy (wheel bearing) type grease should reduce the noise level.