shadow_elenter Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Hey builders! Recently I made a LEGO power functions laser (topic can be found here), and it got me thinking... what els can I build? That's how I came to the idea of making a LEGO electromagnet! Making it was actually a whole lot easier than making the LEGO laser. The LEGO laser required a 9 volt to 5 volt converter and reversed -polarity protection. The electromagnet was already made for 9 volt and it does not care about polarity. I just got the motor out and unhooked the 2 wires, then connected those 2 wires to the electromagnet and... it worked! I'm amazed by the strength of this small thing, under good conditions (unpainted, flat metal) it can lift up to 6 kilo's! I have no specific idea of how to use it in MOC but I'm sure I'll think of a good application for it. All suggestions are welcome by the way Tell me what you think ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BUILDING LOGweight: 78 gramscapacity: 6 kilo+ To make one yourself you need: PARTS: - a 9 volt electromagnet (ebay is a good source, I bought mine for 5.46$). - some glue (I used hot glue) - soldering tin & shrink tube TOOLS: - flathead screwdriver or prying tool - soldering iron -lighter (for shrink tube) First you need to open up the PF XL motor housing, this is quite hard.I found the best way is to squeeze it just a bit in a vice so the outer shell becomes oval and you can stick a small thin screwdriver in the gap to open it(mind the position in the vice!). This is what you will find on the inside: Disconnect the 2 wires attached to the motor, put the top half of the casing is a vice and dremel out the center rougly to the size of you electromagnet: Then make everything perfectly round with a small file untill the electromagnet fit's snug in the housing: After pressing it in the housing, get 2 lego beams and attach them to the 2 forward facing holes. this way you can make the magnet perfectly flush when mounted in a MOC: Then seal the electromagnet firmly in place using glue (I used hot glue). Next you solder the 2 wires coming from your electromagnet to the 2 wires that were attached to the motor (the inner 2 strands of the 4 strand LEGO wire, polarity does not matter). Make sure you use shrink tube to isolate both wires! Then glue the motor plate (holding the LEGO wire) in place and test the magnet! If it works close it up and you're done!! I hope you enjoined this build log, if you have any questions just let me know! Quote
Myers Lego Technic Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Scrapyard crane! I can see great things in the future. Quote
ColletArrow Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 That's very good, and an ingenious combination of two parts. However, you have a lot of unused length there. Do you think you could shorten the XL motor housing, to make it easier to implement in a model? Quote
Void_S Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 (edited) 25 minutes ago, ColletArrow said: However, you have a lot of unused length there. Do you think you could shorten the XL motor housing, to make it easier to implement in a model? The same opinion: shorten ex-XL motor also should be more authentic to a real electromagnet used at scrapyards: relatively flat (short) cylinder, mounted on a jib with thread or chains: Anyway it's amazing thing, too bad that not enough useful for only Lego parts (they are 99% ABS, that useless for magnets ) Edited March 31, 2017 by Void_S Quote
Attika Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Another great mod. Up to this day the Lego was only dangerous to your bankcard if you bought a new set, now you can corrupt the card without buying any. Quote
aeh5040 Posted April 1, 2017 Posted April 1, 2017 Very interesting! I'm curious how much current it uses. How long would the battery last, and will it work with the IR receiver? Quote
Aventador2004 Posted April 1, 2017 Posted April 1, 2017 Is there a way to put the electromagnet in farther Quote
shadow_elenter Posted April 3, 2017 Author Posted April 3, 2017 On 31-3-2017 at 6:26 PM, ColletArrow said: That's very good, and an ingenious combination of two parts. However, you have a lot of unused length there. Do you think you could shorten the XL motor housing, to make it easier to implement in a model? Shortening it is not doable without making it very ugly, that's why I decided to just leave it like this. Unfortunately, the PF-M motor housing was to small for the electromagnet... That was my initial intention. On 31-3-2017 at 6:51 PM, Void_S said: too bad that not enough useful for only Lego parts (they are 99% ABS, that useless for magnets ) True, are there any technic part's that do have metal in them that I could make it interact with? the only one that I know is the steel crane hook, and that's not very useful... On 1-4-2017 at 9:11 AM, aeh5040 said: Very interesting! I'm curious how much current it uses. How long would the battery last, and will it work with the IR receiver? The electromagnet was rated for 0.5A... how long the battery will last... I don't know yet. On 1-4-2017 at 2:35 PM, Aventador2004 said: Is there a way to put the electromagnet in farther There's indeed a lot of room behind it, and it could be moved back but I chose this for easier implementation in model. Quote
Aventador2004 Posted April 3, 2017 Posted April 3, 2017 Ok wasn't sure from the pics. Otherwise it is in a xl motor and I love xl motors so it is fine by me. Great job!!! Quote
HRU_Bricks Posted March 3, 2019 Posted March 3, 2019 @shadow_elenter nice MOD. This could be used with Boost or Mindstorm...the possibilities! Quote
shadow_elenter Posted March 4, 2019 Author Posted March 4, 2019 On 3/3/2019 at 5:13 PM, HRU_Bricks said: @shadow_elenter nice MOD. This could be used with Boost or Mindstorm...the possibilities! That would be a good application! To be honest I have rarely used the electromagnet in my builds. I tend to build LEGO things that manipulate other LEGO things so a magnet rarely has a good application sins almost nothing is metal. Quote
HRU_Bricks Posted March 26, 2019 Posted March 26, 2019 On 3/5/2019 at 7:29 AM, shadow_elenter said: That would be a good application! To be honest I have rarely used the electromagnet in my builds. I tend to build LEGO things that manipulate other LEGO things so a magnet rarely has a good application sins almost nothing is metal. I was thinking of using it to pick up parts bins and transfer them. They would need a small strip of metal on one side as well. Quote
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