My Motor: Design Concepts/Findings

When I first started building my motor, I had a clear idea of what to make it look like. There weren't many design concepts I was considering because I had one clear in my mind. I knew what it was going to look like but I just had to make it work. 

While making this motor, I found techniques of doing things which made it easier. I also found that certain things made the motor better than others. When I was first making the field magnet, I just coiled the wire around and around but it was not very neat. Then, when I tried to put it on the base, it would not go on and work. I found out that I just had to take some of the wire off and make it neater to make it work and fit on the base. 

The electromagnet was challenging to make but I discovered ways to make it easier along the way. I managed to put nuts on the ends of the nails to make sure that when I wrapped the coil around them, they wouldn't stick together. If they stuck together, I wouldn't have been able to put the axle in between the two nails. I also realized that you had to wrap the coil around extremely tightly in order for the coils to be wrapped neatly together. I also had to twist the ends of the brushes in order to make them touch the copper better. 

My Motor: Challenges

There were a lot of challenges involved in making this motor. The first challenge I encountered was getting all of the right materials. Since the materials were very specific, I really had to look everywhere and ask a lot. Even finding things on the internet was hard because I did not know for sure if it was the right type of wire needed for this motor. 

Making the base for this motor was a pretty simple task, but I had to make sure I measured everything correctly for the motor to fit. Once I got the base done, I had to make the electromagnet and the field magnet. The only challenging part of the field magnet was wrapping the wire around because it was so hard to bend. But eventually I got it done and the magnet worked. The really hard part was making the electromagnet. It was challenging to wrap the magnet wire around. First of all, it required a lot of patience, which I don't really have. Also, you had to wrap the wire around extremely carefully and really tightly to make sure it works correctly. This process was really long and challenging but I got it to work. 

Another challenging part was making the brushes. They were extremely hard to keep in place because they were really flimsy and kept on moving around. You also really had to line them up with the copper well so that they touched at all times. 

Overall, this motor was pretty challenging to build although the concept itself was not. The parts of this motor were really small to work with, which just added to the challenge. However, none of these challenges really set me back, I just had to work through them. 

Electric Motors

An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Therefore, it turns electricity into movement. 

Electric motors are used for various different things. Fans, blowers and pumps, machine tools, household appliances, power tools, disk drives and many other things all use electric motors. 

Electric motors can operate on direct current (DC) sources or alternating current (AC) sources. DC sources include batteries and motor vehicles. AC sources come from power grids, inverters, or generators. 

Motors have been around since the 1700s. The first DC electric motor capable of turning machinery was invented by William Sturgeon, a British scientist in 1832. After that, more complex motors began being built by many different men, each with more power. Electric motors revolutionized industries and made things a lot easier. They became extremely popular. 

There are many different parts to a motor. 

1. First there is the rotor. The rotor is the moving part of a motor that turns the shaft, which delivers mechanical power. 
2. A power supply, such as a battery, supplies the electrical energy for the motor. The motor then is able to convert this energy into mechanical energy. 
3. The field magnet is a magnet created by wrapping coils around metal. When these coils are attached to the power supply, they create a field magnet which has stationary poles. These poles will attract to the electromagnet and make the motor spin. The field magnet is stationary and does not move in most motors. 
4. A commutator is used to switch the input of machines. There are stationary brushes in constant contact with the spinning commutator. This causes current reversals which keep the motor spinning. 

Motors are extremely important to our modern day world but often go unnoticed. They make everyday machines function.