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• stumped on copper wireuse
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  I'm stumped. Why would non-ferrous wire work in this motor when the magnet is meant power it? Thanks, Woody in Washington

  Posted by woodrich on October 11, 2005 at 12:29:05 Pacific Time

• 1 ft?
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  The instructions say 1m or about 3 ft. It's a cool little project, works like a charm.

  Posted by JohnFrago on April 29, 2005 at 08:59:42 Pacific Time

• 1 ft?
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  Posted by JohnFrago on April 29, 2005 at 08:59:03 Pacific Time

• Wrap the wire 10 times?
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  Ive tried the Motormouth project but its not working yet. One think is the instructions say to wrap 1 ft of wire around the C cell 10 times. 1 ft of 22 gauge wire will only go around about 3 times. To get 10 revolutions, it takes about 3 ft. Additionally, getting nail polish to adhere to small copper wire is tricky. Still trying...stay tuned.

  Posted by cbcurran on April 09, 2005 at 09:59:27 Pacific Time

• Wrap the wire 10 times?
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  OK, I found this site to have some helpful tips: http://fly.hiwaay.net/~palmer/motor.html
  
  It describes a similar project done on the Beakman show.
  
  To get this to work, I wrapped the wire 7 times around the C battery and prepared 24 gauge magnet wire as the Beakman instructions describe, one end has the enamel totally removed while the other end is half removed. 600 grit sandpaper as they describe worked well. In addition, you need to hold the battery so the safety pins make about a 45 degree angle with the horizontal. I used some Play Dough to hold the battery still on a table. I plan to go back to see if the 1/2 enamel on each end works as described in the cartoon.

  Posted by cbcurran on April 11, 2005 at 11:35:26 Pacific Time

• Wrap the wire 10 times?
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  Hee hee...I had great fun with this one!
  
  I tried 2 things...first the "magnet wire" I've had kicking around for about 25 years ;-) Perfect occasion to break out some to show the kid.
  
  Next, I didn't want to try nailpolish for standard 22 gague wire from Radio Shack....instead I coated all but a narrow strip with a sharpie marker. These Sharpie markers I know are used for home etching (it keeps the acid off the copper where you want copper traces). Wouldn't you know that, it seems reasonably insulating too. One word of caution though, It seems to wear off after about 30 minutes of use...not good for efficientcy ;-}
  
  But heck, the battery looses lot of juice by then anyway ;-D

  Posted by The_Rs on August 06, 2005 at 20:33:10 Pacific Time