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With my 1/4 scale hydro back-burnered for the moment while I re-stock the wallet, I turned my attention to something a little different. I've been a collector of small toy outboard motors for years, eveything from the 1950s K&O outboards to the 1970s/1980s model Mitsuwas, etc. The one thing they all had in common is that they were cheaply made (even if the motors themselves are no longer cheap to buy!!). As such, they really didn't go very well on a boat. Fine for the bath tub, but not much more. Pump up the voltage and the cheap copper brushes would curl up or burn right off.
Which brings me to this Saturday morning. I have a couple of the 1990s era Nylint plastic toy outboard motors. Again - cheaply made. They use the RE-260 Mabuchi can motors with the copper brushes, and the prop, propshaft and prop gear are molded as one piece. As such there's a LOT of slop in the drive train, particularly between the pinion and propshaft gears. One of my motors was brand new and the pinion would not stay in contact with the propshaft gear!
So, I took one of the "played with" motors apart to see what was going on and to assess whether it could be made better. I started with the gears. I made a shim, approx. .022" thick out of a nylon washer. Getting it on the propshaft was the next step, so I cut a slit on one side of the washer to allow it to slide over the propshaft. I then CA glued the washer to the rear face of the propshaft gear to act as a spacer bushing. This tightened things up nicely with only the slightest hint of gear play now.
I then moved onto the motor. I had an RC-280 can motor with the carbon brushes in my junk box, so I removed the end bell from that and installed it on the RE-260 can. This should give the motor a bit more life and allow it to handle some extra voltage.
I put it all back together and test ran it in a cup of water on 6V and it ran beautifully! Pushed a lot of water! I ran it briefly on a 7.2V pack and it just about emptied the cup!
Here's a video of it running on 6V. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcf...board-mod_tech
Now that I had the motor beefed up, I moved onto a boat. I had this catamaran hull in a box of "project boats". It is a Fleet Line plastic hull from the 1960s and originally had a pair of cheap, plastic Johnson 40hp motors on it. It originally had a cabin portion that didn't come with it when I bought it off eBay over 10 years ago. It measures a hair under 12-inches long.
I tested in the tub with the 6V pack and it went pretty good, but not quite planing speed. It's actually pretty close, though! I will see if I can get a small 7.4 LiPo which will take a bunch of weight out of the boat and give more juice. If that works, then I'll see about adding some lightweight electronics to make it fully R/C. There's also room to mess around with motor angle and height, too. Should be fun!
Which brings me to this Saturday morning. I have a couple of the 1990s era Nylint plastic toy outboard motors. Again - cheaply made. They use the RE-260 Mabuchi can motors with the copper brushes, and the prop, propshaft and prop gear are molded as one piece. As such there's a LOT of slop in the drive train, particularly between the pinion and propshaft gears. One of my motors was brand new and the pinion would not stay in contact with the propshaft gear!
So, I took one of the "played with" motors apart to see what was going on and to assess whether it could be made better. I started with the gears. I made a shim, approx. .022" thick out of a nylon washer. Getting it on the propshaft was the next step, so I cut a slit on one side of the washer to allow it to slide over the propshaft. I then CA glued the washer to the rear face of the propshaft gear to act as a spacer bushing. This tightened things up nicely with only the slightest hint of gear play now.
I then moved onto the motor. I had an RC-280 can motor with the carbon brushes in my junk box, so I removed the end bell from that and installed it on the RE-260 can. This should give the motor a bit more life and allow it to handle some extra voltage.
I put it all back together and test ran it in a cup of water on 6V and it ran beautifully! Pushed a lot of water! I ran it briefly on a 7.2V pack and it just about emptied the cup!
Here's a video of it running on 6V. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcf...board-mod_tech
Now that I had the motor beefed up, I moved onto a boat. I had this catamaran hull in a box of "project boats". It is a Fleet Line plastic hull from the 1960s and originally had a pair of cheap, plastic Johnson 40hp motors on it. It originally had a cabin portion that didn't come with it when I bought it off eBay over 10 years ago. It measures a hair under 12-inches long.
I tested in the tub with the 6V pack and it went pretty good, but not quite planing speed. It's actually pretty close, though! I will see if I can get a small 7.4 LiPo which will take a bunch of weight out of the boat and give more juice. If that works, then I'll see about adding some lightweight electronics to make it fully R/C. There's also room to mess around with motor angle and height, too. Should be fun!
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