453 replies to this topic

[Alan Draht]

To complete this project, all that's left to do, really, is to flat-spot the pinion end of the armature, flat-spot the rear axle for the wheels and spur gear, install the brushes and power wiring between the motor and the guide, set the driver/ roll bar into the chassis, tin the ends of the front axle and press-fit the front wheels, and...

 

...paint and decal the body.

 

 

Over the past week I finished this project.

 

I flat-spotted the axle on the mill.  I hand-filed a flat spot for the pinion gear on the armature shaft.

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[Alan Draht]

I worked on wiring and set the brushes.

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[Alan Draht]

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[Alan Draht]

Power wiring...

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[Alan Draht]

Driver/ roll bar...

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[Alan Draht]

Body...

 

There are a handful of sizable dust particles embedded in the clear top coat.  I'll wait another week before I try to rub/ polish out these defects, and probably airbrush another clear coat.

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[Alan Draht]

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[Alan Draht]

Assembly...

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[Alan Draht]

The completed car with a 1 ounce nose weight:  7.7 oz.

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[Don Weaver]

Simply spectacular  !

[MSwiss]

Happy July 4th!  
 
I can easily reinstall the original Ram Alnico magnet and put the Neo back in its box, but I'm here to tell you that the original magnet is so weak that without the brushes installed I could twirl the wheels and spin the armature freely.
 
No bueno.
 
Very little of the Alnico's magnetic strength is left and if I were to try running it on Mike's drag strip as is, the results would be pitiful.
 
So, the question is this:  Where exactly does one re-magnetize a motor such as this in the USA, using the monster Simco or Carlysle remagnetizer's of olden days?
 
That's the only way strict adherence to the original Gene Husting Rod & Custom dragster is going to work.   Otherwise, we're talking shelf queen.  

Alan,
You might of missed where I posted that Mark Mattei brought this into the shop for us to play with.

When you make it to the raceway, bring that mag and we'll try to revive it.

[dc-65x]

Great car Alan. That was a ton of skilled work.  

 

My offer is still open to rezap your motor if you need it. You'd have to trust your car to the shipping gods to get it to me. I think with the body, rear wheels and spur gear off I could lay the car down on its side to zap it. We could take some measurements and see.

 

 

............if you didn't have a source for re-magnetizing the original "iron" magnets I can help with this:

 

 

 

Here are before and after gauss readings on a RAM 850:

 

 

 

 

 

[MSwiss]

Rick,
Does the mag have to be rezapped in the motor?

[dc-65x]

In these old "iron magnet" motors pulling the magnet from the motor kills it. Here's a test I did with a Pittman motor:

 

 

I was asked about zapping a Pittman 196 with the arm out. The arm is to be installed afterward. Hmmmmmm................I always thought that the old magazine scribes preached zapping open frame motors if the magnet or armature were ever removed. Removing either would "kill" the magnet.

 

So, I did a very limited but informative test on magnet zapping a Pittman 196A motor.

 

First picture is the assembled Pittman 196A that was zapped a while back:

 

 

Next I removed the magnet........

 

 

......and reinstalled the magnet and got this reading:

 

 

So that is big drop. I rezapped the motor and she's happy again:

 

 

Then I pulled the armature and to my surprise, got only a slight drop:

 

 

I reinstalled the arm and got a lower reading, again to my surprise:

 

 

The arm was removed and installed again and I got another drop:

 

 

I zapped again and got a nice bump up in the gauss reading:

 

 

So, what does all this mean

 

Pulling the magnet does seem to kill it until it's rezapped.

 

Pulling the arm is not as bad as I thought (on a Pittman 196A) but it's still not the best thing to do.

 

[Dave Crevie]

Removing the arm on the old alnico magnet motors does let the field die some. Motors were always re-zapped with the arm inside, and often hit

three or four times, each time turning the arm 90 or 120 degrees. An old trick we used at a race when we needed to remove the arm and didn't

have time to re-zap was to wrap the magnet/s, still in the frame or can, with many turns of iron wire, then remove the arm. You could get low-carbon iron wire at hardware stores back then. Adding a mass of iron to the field would help keep it, at least for a very short time.   

[Alan Draht]

Thanks Mike.  I did miss that post.  Having a magnetizer like that at the track to use between runs is a necessity to run these vintage dragsters properly.

 

Uncle Fred said here earlier in this thread that back in the day he personally re-magnetized his cars' motors before every run, wouldn't allow anyone else to do it for him.

 

Gene Husting says pretty much the same exact thing.

 

What gets me is that there is still a ton of cool vintage slot car stuff floating around the planet decades later, but the old monster Simco and Carlisle magnetizers are extremely rare.

 

If there was someone still around who has reverse-engineered one of those machines, or understands and can describe what it would take to scratch-build one, I'd make that my next project before building another magwinder.

[Alan Draht]

I say this because I want to build more of these replica vintage dragsters from the 1960's and having a magnetizer available --  one that's at least equal to or better than a Simco or Carlisle machine -- is kind of a prerequisite for me going forwards.

 

I have to admit that I stuck the Neo magnet in to see how the motor would "feel", literally, when I turned the wheels and like I said, the difference between that and the free-wheeling armature ("Wow, the ball bearings work great!") using the original Alnico magnet is dramatic.

 

And, more to the point, that's how strong the Alnico magnet should be when it's properly re-magnetized, at least as good as what Gene Husting's motors probably enjoyed.

 

With all the advanced technical savvy we have today, to not have this tool widely available presents a big problem for anyone interested in both replicating AND racing vintage dragsters.

 

I mean, the vintage magwinder's motor practically IS the car once you get to the Gas and Fuel Top Eliminator class divisions.

[Alan Draht]

Hi Rick,

 

Thanks for your compliments on the car!   

 

I will take you up on your re-magnetizing offer and PM you for details soon.

 

The car really is done and ready for the drag strip as soon as the motor is re-magnetized.

 

Your re-magnetizing of the Ram motor in my car will set the standard for me going forwards on other similar magwinder projects.

 

It may be instructive for other vintage slot car dragster enthusiasts doing similar projects.

 

I dream of that Carlisle machine of yours.  

[MSwiss]

https://e-slotcar.co...zapper-csp-cmz/