# Reindeer Concerns



## crossblades400 (Oct 30, 2007)

Hi guys, Im wanting to make a project using the animated reindeer. 
I was wondering, some people told me it is very weak and has little support

So heres my question,

1. Have you ever used a reindeer to make a project/prop? Did it turn out well?
2. for my prop, I am using the deer that makes its head go up and down. I want to attatch an upper body where the deer head is, so it lifts the upper body up and lowers it as its head lowers. I will be using a very light piece of cloth (stuffed with plastic grocery bags!), 1 mask, , 1 styrafoam head, 1 coat hanger (light plastic, and a cardboard tube, to prop it up onto its head. Will the deer be able to support all of those materials? It is a lot of materials, but most of them are light. 

Please let me know! Thanks so much!

P.S. if you have any other alternative strategies or things to use, please let me know, as long is it is not too complex or expensive, its fine!


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## higginsr (Oct 4, 2007)

I can't picture what you are trying to accomplish so it is hard to say... but to that end remember that these are engineered in such a way that the motor/gear combo is really made within the specs of the piece it was manufactured for... it might hold and do the job but I can't really say as I never made anything out of the reindeer thingy


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## crossblades400 (Oct 30, 2007)

Well, not to say im full of money, but it is only 20.00, so i will try it out.

Hopefully ill make a vid of what im doing =)


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## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

Crossblades, If you want to spend $20 on a motor to try out, why not grab a rotisserie motor from a gas grill? It will have a better torque than the reindeer motor...still might not get a good lift like you are describing though. I have hacked a deer with a side-to-side linkage and it worked well...not too sure if the wimpy little motor they put in those things would hold up to the lifting of much extra weight though.

If you decide to try it, best of luck to you!


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## Richie (Jan 4, 2007)

Just remember that the motors on the deer are inside those water proof enclosures. Any other motor you install will not be water proof anymore. Please keep this in mind. I have several of the large 60" motorized Deer in my basement. I've never been able to get replacement motors for them. The reason I never bothered using a different type of motor on them was specifically because of the water proof issue.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

I have a moving tombstones made from old reindeer motor, rocks back and forth. It did not survive the move, but I kept the motor and plane on building a new moving tombstone from it. As Vlad has pointed out, lots of reindeer show up curbside after christmas.

$20 will buy 2 wiper motors from the junkyard. Make a deal ahead of time to find out what type of car to pull them from, and how many. Wiper motors are hard to beat for general low rpm, high tourque prop needs.

Finally, I have had a lot of luck finding good deals on low speed motors at the surplus sites like www.allelectronics.com. A 13 RPM DC motor I purchased for $13 has driven my FCG for 3 years now, no signs of stopping.


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## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

Also keep in mind that the reindeer motors are low torque. If exceeded the motor will actually change directions. I'm not sure if it was intentionally engineered this way so the motors wouldn't burn up if you get hit with an ice storm (which happened last week and our reindeer are still kickin).

However, keep the low torque in mind when planning what you're gonna lift with it. I used an old reindeer motor for a FCG this year - classic design so it's light weight, and I still had to add a counter weight so my ghost didn't move halfway, stop and reverse (it looked like watching a film clip repeat going forward then reverse then forward then reverse, repeat ad nauseum).

-TM


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## crossblades400 (Oct 30, 2007)

Thanks, this already helped with our reindeer clown guy, but we fixed it so there is less weight and force on the motor. Works fine for 3+ hours.... (tested yes)


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