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My Books

Marvelous Magnetic Machines

Gallery 1


Here, you can take a look at some images associated with the projects appearing in my book, Marvelous Magnetic Machines.
 

This is the cover of Marvelous Magnetic Machines. Artisan Ideas, my publisher, has released it in hardcover. This is the kind of book that will serve well in any library, whether public or in a private collection.

 


 

This is the PeeWee Motor. It's an attraction motor based upon a solenoid salvaged from some office equipment, scrap metal, leaves from toggle switch, and a bearing and flywheel from a cassette recorder.

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Here is an example of some of the 3D artwork, generated in FreeCAD, that is featured in Marvelous Magnetic Machines. Here we see some assembly detail associated with the PeeWee Motor's bearing and flywheel.

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This is an exploded view of a leaf switch. The PeeWee motor relies on one of these to effect engine timing.

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This is called the Texas Motor. The Texas motor was named because of its conspicuous rocking beam and its resemblance to an oil pump jack. This is also an attraction motor.

 


 

Timing in the Texas Motor is achieved with a combination crank/cam, which actuates a leaf switch.

 


 

The beam on the Texas Motor is comprised of two pieces of aluminum, separated with spaces and held together with a series of bolts. The fabrication of this and every other part in the book can be accomplished with hand tools.

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The bearing for the rocking beam is a repurposed bushing taken from a discarded potentiometer.

 


 

Another  view of the Texas Motor

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This the Christmas Motor, as featured on the cover of the book. It's a radial attraction engine, reminiscent of an old aircraft engine. The crankcase is an aluminum saucepan, the front bearing support was salvaged from a candle holder. The crank mechanism for a radial engine is fairly complex, and is described in great detail in the book.

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With the click of a button, FreeCAD allows me to make parts of the motor disappear, to reveal the complex mechanism hidden in the crankcase.

 


 

Another way to reveal hidden detail in a FreeCAD model is to render some of the parts transparent.

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At the rear of the motor is a black box containing transistors that are used to fire the engine's solenoids in sequence. Note the glass window at the rear of the crankcase, which allows the motion of the crank to be observed.

 



Click here to advance to Gallery 2


(pilot - 02/28/2021)


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