Product Description

All you need to build a working DC motor and learn its parts from the inside out! Assembly involves winding your own armature and field coil; building the commutator with two snap-together pieces; installing brushes into the holes in the base; and slipping one battery into battery clips. This isnt a watered-down geegaw with a few measly parts that youll handle once and then discard. This clever kit has been used for over 40 years to teach crucial concepts to children aged 10 and up.

Kit includes: coil of copper wire; plastic base with holes for parts; field poles; armature core; brushes; all fasteners; and detailed, illustrated assembly instructions with 8 experiments. You need 1 AA battery.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3280 in BISS
• Brand: Science First®

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Customer Reviews

A cute little kit that assembles easily (with parental help), but it might not work
This kit comes with about a dozen plastic parts, plus two long strands of wire, a metal axis, and rubber tubing. The long strands of wire need to be cut, and the ends scraped to expose bare wire. The rubber tubing needs to be cut into three short segments. Ordinary scisssors and a small kitchen knife can accomplish these things. One tricky thing is winding the wire around special pieces of plastic. About 50 windings are needed. A child under ten years old would not be expected to do this on her own. Another tricky thing is ensuring that the two whiskers that contact the commutator are situated so that they actually contact the commutator, as the axis spins. Perhaps, a tiny rubber band can be wrapped around the pair of whiskers to ensure that they maintain proper contact.

The most obvious problem is that the ARMATURE bumps into the wire that is wrapped around the FIELD POLE. In other words, the wires that are wrapped around the FIELD POLE stick up a little too much, and bump into the ARMATURE, when the ARMATURE attempts to spin around. Possibly, this problem can be overcome by using a metal saw to shorten the "wings" of the ARMATURE. I had this problem with bumping, even though my wires were tightly wrapped around the assembly of the FIELD POLE/MOUNTING BRACKET.

At any rate, I spent an hour spinning the axle manually, and using my fingers to ensure that the whiskers were lightly pressed against the commutator. I spent an hour trying to coax a slight bit of motorized movement. My battery was brand new. But eventually I quit.