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I chanced to collect some 'Dettol' brand hand soap dispensers some time ago, and finally got down to opening one up today. Complete score, inside was a can motor which appears identical to that in the Fulgurex point motor that I have standardised on, it even has the same diameter and pitch worm on it! I have been accustomed to getting motors out of cars* and photocopiers, but this is a whole new potential source of supply.

*This adventure began on a dark and filthy wet night when I came off my bike, I had hit a detached wing mirror unit lying in the gutter. I took it as it was a hazard, and on later examination found it was powered by a Buhler motor of roughly 18 by 30mm dimensions. It now powers an old Hornby loco chassis from a tender drive 9F.

Excellent scavenging
I remember being told when younger that all the loco's on an extensive outdoor gauge 1 layout were powered by ex RAF camera motors of WWII vintage.

Now you've done it. You'll have modellers running around in the dead of night nicking mirrors from cars.

Mmmm will there be a time post Covid-19 panics when hand sanitiser dispensers will be
2 a penny at the re-claim yard ??? Wonder what they're powered by ?

Bigmet, you're still tearing about on a bike ? My wife told me it was unseemly after the
age of 70 !!

Geoff T

Dad-1 wrote:Mmmm will there be a time post Covid-19 panics when hand sanitiser dispensers will be 2 a penny at the re-claim yard ??? Wonder what they're powered by ?...

You read my mind, almost certainly little can motors. I didn't mention another good source, old photographic gear. Remember the the Canon 1833 motor that was better than the Mashima equivalent? May be found inside the autowinders for their A series cameras of the 1970s to 1990s.

Dad-1 wrote:...Bigmet, you're still tearing about on a bike ? ...

No longer! Roads too hazardous, due to all too many drivers with not a clue. After two events in short succession where drivers did their best to inflict injury I hung up the bike, now just over 20 years past. Defensive riding cannot fully protect you from a driver pulling alongside and immediately turning across your path, or losing control of their vehicle such that it completely blocks the road ahead.

After forty years of using a bike near daily for my local area personal mobility needs, I now feel it is not sufficiently safe for anyone to cycle on the public road in SE England. Too much traffic, many poor junction layouts, endless parked cars, poor road surfaces, and a significant proportion of drivers with not a clue.

Anyone barmy enough to consider building true Co-Co in 4mm should collect disposable electric tooth brushes, they each contain a 1.5v can motor small enough to drive a single axle. Just need a stereo microscope to see what you are doing with them.

Railway modellers never fail to amaze me!

Should you ever stumble across the equivalent of an RG4 in your scavenging peregrinations, please do let me know!

Tony

Bufferstop wrote:Anyone barmy enough to consider building true Co-Co in 4mm should collect disposable electric tooth brushes...

I have seen this idea discussed by 4mm finescale modellers, sometimes coupled with full compensation on the bogies using the prototype suspension arrangements. I would be interested to see if either or both ideas deliver appreciably more realistic movement than the centre motor all wheel drive/dummy rigid bogie frame typical on RTR OO models, to the extent that would justify the additional motor control complexity and high precision mechanical construction required to enable it to work well. And of course the intense discussions on which 'toothbrush motor' best matches the characteristics of AEI, EE, GEC, etc. motors of the prototypes...

Lysander wrote:...Should you ever stumble across the equivalent of an RG4 in your scavenging peregrinations, please do let me know!

High grade pen drives on laboratory chart recorders, for their near instantaneous acceleration. Sometimes they burned out, which is how I got a gander inside the drive unit. Hideously expensive, never did manage to get a reasonable price on a superseded chart recorder, they all got bought back by the various lab equipment suppliers, credited against the new purchases.

Bigmet wrote:

Dad-1 wrote:Mmmm will there be a time post Covid-19 panics when hand sanitiser dispensers will be 2 a penny at the re-claim yard ??? Wonder what they're powered by ?...

You read my mind, almost certainly little can motors. I didn't mention another good source, old photographic gear. Remember the the Canon 1833 motor that was better than the Mashima equivalent? May be found inside the autowinders for their A series cameras of the 1970s to 1990s.

Dad-1 wrote:...Bigmet, you're still tearing about on a bike ? ...

No longer! Roads too hazardous, due to all too many drivers with not a clue. After two events in short succession where drivers did their best to inflict injury I hung up the bike, now just over 20 years past. Defensive riding cannot fully protect you from a driver pulling alongside and immediately turning across your path, or losing control of their vehicle such that it completely blocks the road ahead.

After forty years of using a bike near daily for my local area personal mobility needs, I now feel it is not sufficiently safe for anyone to cycle on the public road in SE England. Too much traffic, many poor junction layouts, endless parked cars, poor road surfaces, and a significant proportion of drivers with not a clue.

The big gripe I have is not so much the volumes of traffic, but the traffic calming measures makes cycling dangerous. Before they were used, there was plenty of room for vehicles to overtake. Since they were put in place where pavements were widened, and curbs now have very sharp 90 degree edges where in the past they had curved edges... And when vehicles do find a gap to overtake they often cut you off because the next traffic island is in the way. It is not the motorists fault but the fault of very poor road design, as before these road traffic calming measures existed, the roads were actually safer for cyclists to use, and if one did get knocked off, a rounded curb was less likely to cause serious injury then todays 90 degree angled curbs are.

Mountain wrote:...It is not the motorists fault but the fault of very poor road design, as before these road traffic calming measures existed, the roads were actually safer for cyclists to use...

This is something I quite frequently argue with our local authority. It's abundantly clear that the design is by people with either zero cycling experience or insufficient spine to inform their masters that there is not the space for the scheme proposed. If there is to be traffic calming for powered vehicles, the only acceptable provision for cyclists is a separate cycle path to at least the minimum 1.5m width standard, completely avoiding the obstacles. And if the route is too narrow to permit this, then don't apply calming measures which are dangerous hazards for cyclists. Just apply a 10 mph speed limit, and enforce with draconian rigour.

Bigmet wrote:...I didn't mention another good source, old photographic gear...

Back on topic, the final generations of compact 35mm cameras are another good source of supply. Despite typically running on 3V from a pair of AA batteries; in the case of a couple of Olympus 'Trips' that I dismembered, the 21mm diameter round can motor ran very happily on 12V DC and were deployed on a couple of home brew tender motor with shaft drive to loco projects. Their late owner took them to Australia, and they were running successfully up to Christmas 2017...

Something just occurred to me. Those auto air fresheners that spray when someone walks passed.
I bet they have some interesting electrickery inside.
Thanks
End2end

End2end wrote:Something just occurred to me. Those auto air fresheners that spray when someone walks passed.
I bet they have some interesting electrickery inside...

For sure. But do you want your model railway to smell like some nasal incompetent's idea of what a spring meadow smells like? (Perhaps this is just me, but 'air fresheners' and the like would be better generally titled 'rancid stinkmakers', or in the case of the least offensive examples, 'spectacularly sickly sweet overkill'. It's like bagpipes, quite pleasant played from the far side of a Scottish loch, as heard at my location 22 miles north of Trafalgar Square.)

You will know who obtained their motors from where as when at exhibitions some will smell nice and every so often spray what looks like steam out of their chassis..., whilst others may go into wipe mode at the first sign of rain...


Ok.. I will be sensible.

Sensible question. How does one find out what voltage a motor is designed to run from if one finds a motor in a gadget that one does not know?

Pragmatic answer. Most of the high grade Japanese design motors in 1970s - 2000 battery powered product which typically had a 3 to 6V battery supply on board - the type of item now being thrown away and thus available free - tolerate 12V DC supply. If the occasional one goes phut, so what?