Thread: what to do with washing machine motors

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hello everyone. i aquired a few motors, i think they are old washing machine motors. anyone have any ideas or tutorials that i could use these for, i did try to look it up but found nothing, yet. i was hoping to make a merry go round and swing out of a couple of them but was wondering if that's possible. i'm new to animation world, so far i've only made shiatsu people, so i was hoping somebody might have some ideas for me. anyway to slow the motors down? i'm assuming they're going to be fast. haven't tried hooking any up yet. one or two do come with outlet cords. thank you.

To slow them down or speed them up may I suggest a variable power knob/switch. Reducing power to the motors won't allow them to turn at top speeds.

awesome, i don't know much about motors so i was wondering if something like that would work or not. thank you

Washer motors are a pretty unique breed. They are made to operate in two directions (if the motor turns one way, the gearbox goes into agitate mode, if it spins the other way, the gearbox goes into spin mode). These also turn at fairly high RPMs, like 1,000 and 1,600 or so, which makes them pretty impractical for prop use. Also, most motors won't work unless they're receiving power via a capacitor as the motor needs to know which direction to turn in.

With an eccentric on the output shaft, you can put it inside a casket, monster in a box, or other large prop and really get the thing moving.