Thread: Black Vent Motor Tutorial (Part 1)

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With this vent motor is becoming a more popular option for animating props, I thought I would post the best way I've found to attach a power source to it. Also how to tap the motor shaft in order to add a crank.
I realize there are several other ways to do this and I've tried many of them. But this is the best and easiest way I've found to do it. This will hopefully help those who are using this motor for the first time.
1) Here is what the motor looks like if you're not familiar with it. They run approximately 5 RPM, have very good torque and don't make any noise at all. I get mine from Electronic Goldmine (on sale) and they are also available from Surplus Center.com.



2) Use a small flathead screwdriver to pop loose the five tabs holding the front and rear motor housings together. Once you have them loose, hold the motor with the shaft facing DOWN and lift off the REAR motor housing. If you lift off the front motor housing, some of the gears inside the motor can fall out.



3) Lay two pieces of wood on your workbench and lay the motor down on them with the shaft in the space between the two pieces. This will keep the shaft from pushing itself up and loosening the gears inside the motor.
This is what the motor looks like from inside. You can also use this pic as a reference if any of your gears fall out and need to be re-inserted.




4) Using some needle nose pliers, grasp the gold pins one at a time and pull them up and out of the motor housing. (See arrows) Discard them. (NOTE: I used to solder my wires--without opening the motor-- straight to these gold pins, but always had a problem with cold solder joints and the wires would just occasionally snap off.)




5) Notice the two small terminals on the bottom of the internal motor. (See arrows). A six inch length of wire will be soldered onto each of these terminals and later used to connect the AC/DC power adapter. You can easily lift out this internal motor for better ease of soldering the two wires. When finished, just set it back in its place.



6) Notice the two small "tracks" near the bottom of the motor housing. (See arrows). This is what our new wires will be laid into before re-assembling the motor halves.



7) This is what your wires should look like after laying them into the "tracks". If you used a wire that is too thick to lay in the tracks, you may have to snip away some of the plastic to allow the motor to be snapped back together. Carefully snap the front and rear motor housings back together.



8) The best screw to use for tapping the motor shaft and attaching the crank is a 1/4-20 X 1/2" inch long machine screw. (See pic)



9) Hold the screw as straight as possible over the hole in the motor shaft and use a phillips head screwdriver to slowly start turning the screw, while at the same time pushing hard on the screwdriver. The screw will start to thread itself into the hole. Again, try to keep the screw as straight as possible.



Here's a link to PART 2:

Black Vent Motor Tutorial (Part 2)

This is terrific and very helpful!!!

But, dude(!)... you gotta get Photoshop for those arrows. But, love the retro version of your paper ones. Must be your Mustang's influence

What is the actual name of this motor and where can I find it?

Lasthouse

They're most often referred to as vent motors and can be found here for $2.99 - https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.a...tname=electric

Can you show it in use? Sorry newbie here. Great info though just don't know how to apply it

shinehigh, you should read the second part of the tutorial and The Braving Grave How-To that shows the motor in use.

I order mine from here:
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.co...?number=G16034

Here's a few examples of props I've made with this motor:





A Crawling Skeleton:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...urrent=004.flv

Also a Moving Eyes Mechanism:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...rent=001-1.mp4

An Animated Ouija Board:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...urrent=016.mp4

Even a Christmas Teeter-Totter:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...t=SUNP0006.mp4

Animated Wolf:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...urrent=011.mp4

And a few others.

Originally Posted by Terra

But, dude(!)... you gotta get Photoshop for those arrows. But, love the retro version of your paper ones. Must be your Mustang's influence

I used the new Photoshop 3-D, where it makes the arrows look like an actual part of the original picture! Pretty cool, huh?



Ok, I lied. I'm just lazy.

I just want to thank you for this tutorial. I really feel confident with adding some simple movement into my props now. I ordered three of those motors yesterday: one for the moving grave prop, and two for toying with other simple animations.

I love using the vent motor. I've used it on a number of props. I'm gonna see if it will raise and lower the arms this year for my haunted tree. I hope it can handle it.