# Thrift store motors - useful or not?



## Gweede (Aug 7, 2014)

I am interested in creating my first animated prop. I went to a thrift store recently and they had any $10 item or under, was a $1 each, so I picked up 2 multi-speed hand mixers, a single armed massager, and an electric knife. Does anyone have suggestions as to what I can use them for?

Thanks!


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## GCWyatt (Aug 30, 2012)

The hand mixers can be used to run Axworthy Ghosts if you can get a wheel attached to one of the beaters to drive bicycle whee via belt drive. The variable RPM afforded by the built in controller will help you tune in the speed of the ghost. I'm not sure of the mixers will have enough torque at low RPM to drive much else, and even at lowest speed they'll be too fast for a Crank Ghost. I'm also not sure what the duty cycle will be on them - you might not be able to run them continuously for much longer than 10 minutes or so before they overheat. You could rig a fan to help keep the motor cool.

The massager might make a great vibration motor for a triggered effect like a skeleton in a cage or electric chair. Again, this will have a short duty cycle of under 20 minutes, so don't plan on any long duration props.

The electric knife is interesting. Reciprocating motors can make for interesting effects, but the knife has a very short travel distance. If you used a cheep dimmer to lower the RPM (or CPM, as the case may be) to run a prop that didn't need a lot of torque it might make an interesting effect. Or you can gut the motor and discard the transmission and use it for something else, just be aware that this will have a short duty cycle, too.

I ran into these very same problems when planning out my props. My Axworthy in particular cause me much grief as I searched for the right motor to drive it. I bought a sewing machine motor only to discover that that way it's constructed (AC with carbon brushes) meant I could't easily control the speed while preserving torque. Even using a PWM failed to give me the torque I needed at extremely low RPM. And most of the other motors I had lying around had really short duty cycles.

So best of luck and let us know what you end up doing with them!


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

For an Axworthy I use an ice cream bucket motor. Long duty, high torque, slow rpm.


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