Thread: Mounting my Train Engine Vortex Machine.

Tweet

Ok... I think I have a problem. I have too much torque (fixable with a dimmer) and no way to mount it... First issue-- the torque. I am pretty sure I have too much torque because every time I turn the engine on the mirror tends to "fly away birdie" As the line in A Christmas Story goes "you'll shoot your eye out kid." everytime I power up I have the urge to duck for fear of losing a limb to the flying mirror from hell. I think I'll be getting a dimmer to install. Now the real issue. I have no way to mount this little beast of a motor. It comes from an electric train engine and has a hell of a lot of torque but the chasis that it mounted to is no longer in existance so I have to find a new way to mount it so that I can be sure it doesnt vibrate itself out of balance and thus destroy my vortex. It has two small holes for jewelers screws but I don't know of a jewelers screw that will mount through a board, and piece of metal before entering the base of the engine. So I'm up for any suggestion that you might have. (Cant use foam because of the melt possibility cant use wood because I need it to mold around the motor. I'm thinking clamps (conduit clamps specifically) but if anyone has other suggestions I could sure use them.

Patick, do you have a picture of this motor ? It would be very helpful to see a picture of it.

If it is a small round DC motor like out of a toy, your idea for using some sort of pipe strap sounds like it might be a good route. If you look at gas line straps, they typically have 2 tabs on them with screw holes. If you can, maybe you could drill a hole in the strap that would line up with one of your threaded mounting holes for an extra bit of security (assuming the holes are in the side and not on the ends)



If the threaded holes are on the end of the motor, you could always try making an L-shaped mouting bracket and attaching it on the end of the motor.

This is the Engine for the model train. It comes out of a HO guage train set and has a ton of torque. (It also does not get real hot so I think I will get by with just using glue for my mirror mount) as you see it is open on the tall side and in the next picture you can see the screw holes on the bottom of the engine. Notice the holes are tiny and offer no real options for mounting.

I like Diabolik's suggestion for metal gas line / conduit piping restraints for the motor. But how fast are you spinning the motor, and is the mirror breaking free from the angled mount, or are the mirror and its angled mount breaking free from the motor axle? And what are you using to attach the mirror to the angled mount and the angled mount to the motor axle? Just want to make sure I understand how you're making this and where the failure is exactly. The angled mount looks either like a hot-melt glue stick or a more solid piece of plastic slid onto the motor's axle.

I'm just using double sided foam tape to attach my mirror and attaching it and its angled mount to the hub of a small blower motor being spun around 1500RPM (I think - I've slept since I measured that RPM ) gotten down to by using a lower voltage, and I haven't had the mirror fly away yet. I did this just for a quick test and didn't think it would hold up as well as it has sofar (knock on wood).

Actually fixed the mirror mount problem. I have it mounted by Hot Glue directly to the axle. I ran it for 30 min last night and no melting occured so I'm confident that I can use Hot glue effectively. RPM's are unknown... I was given the engine from a dead (body crushed) train. As for mounting the engine I was considering the U brackets for conduit. I'll have a better Idea later today. My other issue is wiring the Laser to run off of AC instead of batteries. I saw a Vortex on here that was wired but I have no idea how they did it. Help on this anyone?

I'm using batteries. Wallwarts often have issues with variable voltage (actual not matching the rating when under your load) and reportedly "beat" noise. I'd expect more precision wallwarts or power supplies (like those used for laptops/computers) wouldn't have these issues since they need to be relatively clean on their output. But bamtunebam has an awesome spinning tunnel of light using 50 laser modules that he powers with four D batteries to get the runtime wanted on Halloween.

Got my Green Laser today. It's a 3v 5mW that has leads connected to it. Now all I have to do is find a 12v to 3v step down unit or figure out the math and resistors needed to step it down through relays. Will post pictures this next week if I get time to work on it this weekend.