Motor Building

Today, in our physics class we had to build an electric motor. Me and my partner Sherry , as a group had to bring: one piece of wood( not compressed), a cork, 4 nails, a thin wooden stick which we will use as our axel, commutator pins, paper clips and a pop can which we can use as our brushes, only after sanding. We got scared at the beginning , but Mr. Chung made us feel better after saying that the first well working motors were made by girls. The first 30 minutes of the class were assigned for hammering. As a group, we first measured the distances between the nails which was supposed to be from 2-3 cm. After that we  measured the distance between the sets of nails which was around 4-5 cm. While I carefully hammered the nails into the wood, my partner Sherry used sand paper to sand the strips of aluminum . After doing this part we felt better, but there was more to do. Our next step was to use the wooden stick and insert it into the cork. We had some difficulties with this process, but we worked it out. Very attentively we hammered the commutator pins into the cork. While I was doing that, Sherry was fixing the paper clips so we could use them as our bearings, to support the axel. It felt like we were on the right track. Here we go the toughest part and one of the most important. We had to sand the both sides of the wire, this was not hard. Baring the wire around the commutator pins was the difficult part. We also had to take in consideration that the wire should be bared only in one direction and perpendicular to the commutator pins. After doing that , we attached the sanded aluminum strips using the thumbtacks. We did not forget that the aluminum strips had to be in contact with the commutator pins. Believe it or not, we did it. The last thing to do, was to test it. It was a stressful part. We were the fourth group testing the motors. Mr. Chung assembled the magnets and connected the wires. It worked. We felt very happy and released, but It was an interesting experience. 

We did it!

A closer look....