25 replies to this topic

[bres3000]

Naturally, I completely forgot building this. First, I'll answer your questions:

• Yes, it is.
• Yes, I did.
• Yes, it does.

Now, I have some questions for you Archive experts..... I built this motor based on an article in a Slot Car magazine of the day. I don't recall the name of the mag. Guessing, the date would be around 1967. Do any of you know what Mag/Issue this was in? I'd love to see it again, even just the cover!

Now, on to the show. Pretty much self explanatory: rewound armature joined with rewound armature; epoxied. Case joined with case; painted. Except for the brushes, which crumbled like a cracker, everything is in pretty good shape. I slapped in some good brushes and it's good to go! Guess I'll build another 4WD something to put it in.

[don.siegel]

Ooh, Bill, my favorite motor article! I tried to build one of these, and never quite got it completed (along with a lot of other projects, an old tradition with me, and one that continues...) Do you remember what you wound it with? I think the article used 30 gauge wire...

Anyway, it was in a 1967 issue of Model Car & Track, but I'm at the office without my index or collection, so I'll have to give you the details tonight, if somebody doesn't find that earlier (Gary?). It may have been the April issue...

Did you get this in a car, and what happened?

Thanks much for posting this!

Don

[vsrn]

It was in the July '67 MC&T. The article was titled "Amp Eater", and was written by Robert Hoeppner.

I'll post the article in a day or so...

[bres3000]

I did put it into a VW Dune Buggy. I remember fiddling with gear ratios so the front wheels wouldn't think they were the boss of it! It was fun to drive but more fun to flip over and show people what was in it!

I can't be sure about the wire. The box has some 28 gauge, same color, so...

Thanks for the info on the magazine - can't wait to see what else you guys turn up.

[bres3000]

It was in the July '67 MC&T. The article was titled "Amp Eater", and was written by Robert Hoeppner.

I'll post the article in a day or so...

WOW! I think I'll just sit here and wait - hit the refresh button every now and then! THANKS in advance.

[Tex]

That's wild! Could it be adapted to drive both rear wheels in a sidewinder configuration?

[Hworth08]

That's one nice job of epoxying!

I have an eBayed motor like that except built from 36D motors. The builder named the motor "Freight Train", scratched into the can!

[TSR]

Nicely done!

[Howmet TX]

It's also in one of my UK 'Model Cars' mags- maybe a rip-off of the original US publication? I'll check it out and try and post it, too.

[don.siegel]

Howmet, I think it was a reprint of the US article, just from memory, but if you could post it that would be great.

Don, any chance of seeing "Freight Train"? Sounds like a very, very scary beast...

Bill, I wonder if this thing really was intended for 4WD, since it's not really long enought for a normal 1/24 car... Maybe it was just the equivalent of adding two V8s together to make a V16?

Would love to see it in a Land Speed Record car, or hurtling around a scale Brooklands... Napier-Railton, anyone?

Don

[tonyp]

We made a drag race motor with a comm on each end. Used a 36 D can, standard armature with a double wind off each comm, and two Simco endbells.

I think the track with the drag strip closed before we ever made a pass with it. It buried the amp meter on the power supply.

[Lone Wolf]

Too friggin' cool! I don't see any traces of balancing. Look like it would loosen a few screws here and there .

How about you do a YouTube video for the fans so we can see it spin under power after all these years? It would look awesome between the frame rails of a vintage style drag car.

[bres3000]

Bill, I wonder if this thing really was intended for 4WD, since it's not really long enought for a normal 1/24 car... Maybe it was just the equivalent of adding two V8s together to make a V16?

"Intended" - I guess I never looked at it seriously enough to consider that its original design prescribed an intention! To me, it is what you want it to be. Back then you didn't see motors with shafts coming out both ends. I probably felt that if it didn't have a pinion on both ends it would leave it partially naked.

But... that being said, for the resurrection I promise to build a "serious" 2WD Car - in your honor, of course! Well, maybe not serious - maybe a Shinoda thingie?

[bres3000]

That's wild! Could it be adapted to drive both rear wheels in a sidewinder configuration?

Yeah, I like it! I think it will push the rear tread far enough over 3" to raise a bushel of eyebrows! Heck, while I'm at it, I might extend the rear axle with those razor spindles they used on some of the chariots in Ben Hur.

Anyway, if my Minister of Seriousness (Don. S) gives the OK, a sidewinder it is!

[Prof. Fate]

Hi,

I remember doing one as well, though for the life of me, I cannot remember WHY! I didn't epoxy it as heavily as yours. And I had the two stacks out of phase for "natural" balancing. Did one, as I had a bin of naked shafts, that was one solid long stack as well. I cannot remember much about them, so I am guessing it wasn't a success.

I do remember running a 26D version, though. As I actually raced it briefly, I do remember the thinking for that one. I was playing with twin motor 4WD for no real reason but to again try to make it work. (Didn't we have a thread a couple years ago about the wierd things we tried that never worked, like steering and working suspensions?). The thinking was that it was impossible to get two motors to run at exactly the same speed. So, I thought a long drill blank prop shaft in two set ups and a very, very long can would solve the problem by linking the motors. They would HAVE to run at the same speed, solving the problem.

But the "twice the power, twice the tires" didn't result in twice the acceleration or speed.

Sigh.

Fate

[bres3000]

I don't see any traces of balancing.[/u][/b] Look like it would loosen a few screws here and there . How about you do a YouTube video for the fans so we can see it spin under power after all these years?

Of course you don't "see" any traces. That's cuz I used self-balancing epoxy.


Just kidding

Back then, I figured if I stopped to make another razor blade balancer wide enough, that would drop the project to the bottom of the "queue" and I might never finish it. But now that I have another chance to do it right, I'm still not gonna balance it.

Oh, and I'll have that video up for you in just a minute... or so.

[Howmet TX]

This is the 'Model Cars' article; June '68. You can tell how far behind the times us poor Brits were. He says he built it for a 1/32 Bugatti Royale, but there are no pictures of the car or the motor. Maybe he was just browsing through an old American mag...

If you can't read the small print, he specifies 8 feet of 35 swg wire on each pole, drawing 3-4 amps.

[Larry LS]

Me, too! Me, too! I did one of those also. I used those Pittman brush type end bells for both ends for mine. I was into those then for some of my rewinds. These have the metal bearings in them. Never ran too well, though as the shaft balance was off end to end. But it was fun to show around then. Fun to try though.

Pardon the old picture. All that's left are the endbells.

[Lone Wolf]

Of course you don't "see" any traces. That's cuz I used self-balancing epoxy.

Bill,

Epoxy balancing is not as far out as you think. When Gene Hustings (first guy to officially go sub-1 second in the 1/24 quarter) epoxied his arms, he put the epoxy on and while still viscous put the arm in the wooden handle of an electric barbeque spit to slowly rotate with a lightbulb next to it to aid curing.

From the "you can't make this crap up file."

[don.siegel]

I couldn't go to sleep tonight without posting this article! It was an eight-pager, very unusual for such an experimental motor, but it was a very well-done article, and I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one inspired by it (Hi Larry!). Of course, you guys actually finished yours... Anyway, here we go:

[don.siegel]

And here's the British article, slight larger...

[vsrn]

I couldn't go to sleep tonight without posting this article! It was an eight-pager, very unusual for such an experimental motor, but it was a very well-done article, and I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one inspired by it (Hi Larry!). Of course, you guys actually finished yours... Anyway, here we go:

You beat me to it, Don!

It's in VSRNonline.com also:

Here's the link:

Amp Eater

Greg

[TSR]

Mamma mia! And now we have twin-engine cars terrorizing D3, where is this world going to?

[bres3000]

Thanks a lot, Don & Greg, for finding and posting the article. Man, talk about walking down memory lane! This is GREAT!

[Howmet TX]

That article is great, Don- thanks. The only thing that the Model Cars writer seems to have improved on is to use a single drill blank shaft to replace the originals joined with a pinion gear. That sounds fraught with danger to me, and I wondered what that big collar was underneath the epoxy on your arm, Bres! But it works, I guess.