# What motor has a large amount of torque?



## Howlinmadjack (Jul 20, 2009)

I need to find a motor that I can use to power an arm that has a large amount of torque. I tried a wiper motor, but it wasn't strong enough. Does anyone have any ideas?


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

Wiper motors are about the best torque/price you can get. How heavy is this arm anyways? Where and how do you plan on mounting the motor, and at what point of the arm is going to move? You said you tried a wiper motor, do you have a picture of how it was used? I moved an arm using a wiper motor with no problem, so I'm thinking we can help with the mechanics of it to make it work, so you don't have to buy another motor.


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## Howlinmadjack (Jul 20, 2009)

The arm is made from mâché and pvc piping, so it's fairly heavy. It's about four feet long, and I'm using fishing leader attached to a pulley to lift and lower the arm. Maybe it's the mechanics that are causing trouble. I've never added motion to anything before so it's major trial and error on my part.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

I'd say try to counterbalance or add a torsion spring to help counterbalance. You could probably get a motor with more torque, but it might run really slow and without the proper counterbalancing, the arm might slowly grind into one position, then slam down into the other.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

What volts are you running the motor at? 5V will give you less speed but less torque than 12V.


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## Wrexalot (Aug 23, 2011)

I use wheelchair motors for most of my combat robotics projects, they are much stronger and better built. If you can't get the wiper motor to work shoot me a PM with the details ( voltage, the rpm you need, etc..) And I'll see what I have in the garage.


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## Howlinmadjack (Jul 20, 2009)

Dr Morbius said:


> What volts are you running the motor at? 5V will give you less speed but less torque than 12V.


At the time I ran it at 5 volts, never occurred to me to up the voltage. I'll have to check it out and see if that helps.

Wrexalot, I'll check out the voltage and mechanic, and if it doesn't work the way I like it, I'll pm you.


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

Like Wrexalot says,
wheelchair motors are indeed better, but just realize they mostly run at 24V, so if you have the power they seem like a nice choice too. I never have worked with them so I don't know how well they run at lesser voltages. I like to use my many PC power supplies laying around so that's why I like the wiper motors, just depends on you and what you like.


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## The_Caretaker (Mar 6, 2007)

had that problem with my flaming skull fcg, ended up using wooden gears to get it to move smoothly and cut down the spped. you can see pictures if you follow my link in my signatute also uyoutube videos


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## Thisaintmayberry (Aug 23, 2010)

5 volts is way under-powering your motor. First, I would switch to a 12v source such as an ATX power supply and use a PWM type speed controller to slow the movement if desired. 2nd, I 2nd what everyone else said about posting your layout. Asking any motor to lift a 4 foot long lever is going to be a challenge. Have you considered going to a pneumatic setup?


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