I salvaged a GE microwave oven from the trash and parted it out. The turntable drive motor is 2.5 to 3 rpm, 12 to 21 vac gear motor. It is very powerful. I have another similar motor from a Sharp that is the same but 120 vac. Old microwaves are found in the trash every week around here, at Salvation Army or ask any repair shop for the old ones. It cost more to fix these things than to buy a new one like I had to do last month.
These motors can be used for animation, drives for search lights, antennas, skiers down a hill, magnetic disc to power ice skaters, oilwell pumps, etc.
They could be used to drive a railroad turntable in pairs with a slip drive but can not be reversed as a single drive. They could also replace the vibrator motors on accessories like the Lionel saw mill.
The 12 to 21 volt gear motor could be use on a railcar like the hobo and rail cop to replace the vibrator motor.
You get the idea. Get that imagination going.
Charlie
Hello Charlie Bee: I think thats a great Idea. But if my memory serves me right isn’t there A capacitor in there that put’s out 100,000 volt on discharge? I could be wrong but I thinkyou have to be cautious when you dismantle those things. Maybe someone can enlighten us on this subject. Kind regards Steve
Charlie,
That’s an outstanding idea! I may do something with it, hopefully not nuking myself or inCAPacitating me as Steve warns.
Thanks
It’s “only” a few thousand volts. It will probably be discharged due either to the failure that caused the oven to be discarded or from leaking down over time–probably.
If the microwave has been at the street a few days the capacitor has decayed offf all charge. To be extra save, just take a piece of insulated wire and ground both terminals of the capacitor before messing with. That is the same way one works on a TV tube, ground it out first.
Charlie
I’m sure I could write a book on ideas like this. There are so many things that people toss out because they “don’t work” when actually there are components of the tossed item still do work: tape players and walkmans are a good example. I’ve pulled working small motors from items like these that still work. And the small speakers can be mounted inside buildings: by using a custom circuit board or a small tape player with a loop tape, you can have your own custom sound effects. It’d be kind of fun to have the “Moe, Larry and Curly Shipping Company.” Press a button and you get a short snippet of classic dialog from those 3 goofballs. The companies can’t “manufacture” something like this without paying royalties and licensing fees. But you can make something for yourself with none of that bother.
Even items that are shot are still a gold mine of small screws, washers and all sorts of other do-dads. The early computer keyboards were made with actual springs beneath all the plastic keys: I have a box of springs that came out of several disgarded keyboards.
And cheap kids toys are a goldmine of ideas too. How about those small cheap remote control cars: they have a low power DC motor, are already geared, have wheels and have a remote control box with usually a couple feet of wire.
Those small battery power fans that come at dollar stores for $1.00. Pull the motor and rig it to attach to a non-vibrator motored Rotary Beacon Tower and the vibration caused by that little motor will make that rotating top spin. Of couse you’ll have to play around a little bit to figure out the right place to put it, but that’s part of the fun.
Bicycle brake cables are another goldmine of operating accessory possibilities. As is nylon fishline with springs. And how about those flashing bicycle warning lights… I found one with a blue gel. The way the lights flash could easily mimic welding in a factory building.
I find all kinds of small cartoon characters in bubblegum machi
Very cool idea!
brianel027
Does your Spongebob car have a pineapple on it?
underworld
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brianel027
Enjoyed your post. I also scratch biuld and modify when ever I can and really enjoy it. How about sharing some of you projects with more details and link to pictures if possible. The icing station, coal tower and boxcar loader sound very interesting.
Thanks
Charlie
Brianel is always inspiring. As the baby grows up, I’ve been taking apart some of his ‘used’ kids toys to salvage LEDs, wire, speakers - since I don’t know what I’m doing 
I don’t mind messing them up inadvertently - right now I’m messing with adding a few of these speakers to a speaker box created out of a Lionel box for a semaphore to get more of a localized ‘stereo’ effect from my old MRC Soundmaster 8000.
Brianel,
Very informative! I admit to being a junk man myself, hoarding motors and stuff to play with later (yes, this is one of themany subhobbies of toy trains). You can make stuff out of virtually anything.
It impresses me most to go to 3rd world countries and see them remake stuff from electrical components that we normally would just throw out. Necessity leads to inventiveness. In most of our cases it isn’t necessity, but rather curiosity and creativity that propel us to build stuff from other people’s junk, and the pride of our finished work.
Thanks UW, Doug, Charlie and Dave.
Nope, no pineapple on the SpongeBob car, but now my mind is rolling… hmmmm.
Actually a neat way to make your own “character cars” is to look for the various sticker sets sold in card shops etc. Many are printed on acid free stock. I’ve been able to work the stickers into the rivet lines of box cars (with a little patience and effort) but the “rivetless” MPC era box cars work even better if you are a tad lazy. I made a Looney Toons Circus Car combining these stickers with some self-made decals.
Doug, what you are doing is the BEST way to learn. I mean, I’ve never seen a text book or college course offered on “Building Your Own Lionel Trains 101” so it’s something you figure out along the way. As the hobby turns to more “pre-fab” kinds of items, the creative, do-it-yourself element sometimes gets overlooked. Not only is it fun to make things yourself, but you learn and you can save a bundle of money… meaning you can buy some nicer things that are a little harder to make yourself like locomotives. BTW Doug, I love your tag line about ‘spanning the globe with 027…’ First time I saw that I thought “Dang, wish I had come up with that one!!!”
Charlie, one of these days I’m gonna have to get a digital camera - but it’s not happening soon unfortunately. I’ve never been real wealthy money-wise, and this past year and a half of being out of work has been the biggest drag. But it’s been a learning experience too. I wouldn’t even be back in the hobby if it were not for K-Line and some of the lower-end product that so many seem to dump on. Yet there is so much room for improvement on that stuff… that’s what got me going in the creative direction. I don’t need to buy the most expensive trains to impress people - even if I could, I don’t think I would. The cheaper items all have room for improvement and that’s one of the fun ends of the hobby for me. At first I started modifiying and kitbashing. I then worked my way rather quickly into
brianel027 I just saw some rubbery plastic pineapples in the craft store recently! [:D] I do like your idea of card shop stickers…had never thought of that one. Maybe you can post some pics of your creations
underworld
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well, I have no idea what those rubbery plastic pineapple thingies are but briane, aka agent 027, framed it perfectly for me too with his wanting to learn to make, build, create.
Dave The pineapples are for his Sponge Bob car. [:)]
underworld
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