January 2002 Newsletter
January 2002 Newsletter
Issue 101
Written by George Foard
Those redundant video machines and audio tape recorders are a supply for useful electric motors. You can find them at flea markets, boot fairs, and local authority waste disposal sites (or ‘tips’). The last video machine I found yielded four motors. I’ve paid not more than £1 for a u/s machine.
Arm yourself with assorted screwdrivers and wire cutters and you’re in!
These drive motors are not ‘can’ motors. They are transformed down from mains voltage to, usually 9–12V DC, or battery driven at the same voltage, and they are reversible.
I have found them to be very reliable — they have to be by virtue of their original use! Some have brass or nylon-type armature bearings — the heavier ones have ball bearings — and they are powerful! Two that I have hold a worm on the armature shaft, bracketed to a worm-wheel (as installed) and you just cannot hold the worm-wheel shaft — it will burn!
Mount the motor in your model with ‘Terry’ clips of appropriate size. Primary drive is best by using a belt or band(s) straight off the armature shaft. Avoid gears. They will run, literally, all day without even getting warm, using a suitable controller on 9V DC — I’ve done it. If a motor does go ‘phut’ you can afford to throw it away.
Dimensions vary between 30–40mm in diameter and 15–40mm in length. The machines also yield assorted driving bands and belts.
For obvious reasons, avoid direct mains motors. If in doubt, get the motor checked by a competent TV or Audio repairer, rather than an electrician. Generally, the inscriptions on labels will not give you a clue. Stick to domestic machines — business or commercial outfits, to me, are an unknown quantity.
Written by Peter Clay
| 7650 |
Helicopter |
402 parts |
£29.99 |
| 8650 |
Steam Boat |
331 parts |
£39.99 |
| 8651 |
Airship |
333 parts |
£39.99 |
Metal parts are standard Meccano/Calais finished in zinc or a rust/caramel shade of brown. Most interesting are the metal flexible plates in set 8650, which are finished in silver.
Plastic parts in sets 8650/1 include ‘Space Set’ rocket motors, twin-bladed propellers and an anchor and chain in grey. Other plastic parts, including parts with ½” spaced holes, are in the rust brown, as are the electric motors (with 19:1 bolt-on gearboxes) and battery boxes. The airship also has an inflatable gasbag. Allen-head bolts are black and silver, with square zinc nuts. There is no brassware or grub-screw bosses in any set. Plastic gears (8 x 57-tooth in set 8650!) are on 3-flat axles, held in place by rubber pulleys.
All sets include flat wooden parts which press out from a pre-cut and perforated sheet. If the models were built for exhibition display, they would need overall structural strengthening and the wood parts would need to be detached for transport.
One quirk of all the sets is that the builder is encouraged to ‘customise with paint’ the wood, plastic, and even the zinc parts, to match the rust colour. One wonders why they could not have enamelled or moulded in this colour. Do Nikko regard customisation as a selling point? Sheets of stickers are also included.
Each set builds three models, with clear step-by-step instructions for two and detailed photographs for the third.
MW Models Newsletter for November 2001 has details and illustrations of all the set contents. Prices quoted are for MW and Gamleys. Nikko are not issuing the parts as spares.
To sum up — a series containing some attractive and useful parts, especially the silver flexible plates, which at last match the zinc strips and girders. But hardly a series to challenge the Meccano system with which many ‘nuts’ have grown up.