I'm looking for a source for small electric motors. I want to re-motor some older equipment, but I can't find a supplier who handles a line of small, five-pole, skew-wound 12V motors. There was an article that appeared in The N Scale Model Railroading Manual(1984) about re-motoring the Bachmann 2-8-0. The article called for the Sagami #12203-9 can motor, but Sagami stopped making that motor over five years ago. Furthermore, Sagami doesn't sell to users, and they don't put motor spec sheets on the their website, so I don't even know what to order. Looking for any info - thanks, Hank
Hank, NorthWest Short Line is supposedly working with a new supplier for 12 MM diameter motors since Sagami went out of the business. Try contacting NWSL.
There is a current thread on the N Scale list regarding Mabuchi ff-30 motors that are available. From memory they are 12mm flat cans suitable for repowering steam. The down side appears to be they are either 4.7 or 6 volt. Price seems to be a bonus - around $1.25 each or $1.00 for 10+ from Jameco. I'll dig out the email and post it here. Gary.
Quicker than I thought! <begin> [n_scale] micro motors Daniel wrote: >>> For those of you into eBay, you may have noticed someone known as "trainmommie" offering these neat little 12 volt motors in a dutch auction. I just got mine today in the mail and they look pretty impressive. Was wondering if anybody else got some of these and how they worked when repowering their locos. From the looks of things, they could be a pretty decent flat can motor suitable for steam locos (Trix Pacifics and such). How did you get your gear off the shaft? (Even though they say it can be easily removed, it looks like I'll need a gear puller which I don't have). <<< I have not checked on Ebay to specifically look at these, but I believe it was Jim Cullen who mentioned these were the Mabuchi ff-030 series motors. Jim is correct w/ respect to pricing, they sold (and can still be found) for a little over a dollar at electronics surplus places. I bought mine at Jameco, and apparently they are still available there for the price of $1.25 in quantity one. Price drops if you buy ten or more down to $1.00. Jameco offers excellent service (usual disclaimers apply). Go to http://www.jameco.com and search on ff-030. Complete technical specs on the motor are available via jameco's web site as well. Daniel is correct as to their impressive performance. These are high-quality five-poll motors by a top-of-the-line manufacturer. Daniel is not correct in stating that these are "12 volt motors" - they are most definitely not 12-volt motors. Depending on the specific version of ff-030 it is either a 6-volt or a 4.7-volt motor. (In case you were wondering, the 4.7 volt version is intended for use with four 1.2volt NiCad rechargable batteries). So I don't recommend you get heavy-handed on the throttle and apply a full 12 volts - it will probably survive a short application, but not for any length of time. But by the time you exceed 6 volts on the throttle your loco will be approaching the (scale) sound barrier anyway, so you will know right away when the voltage is too high! As to performance issues, I compared the ff-030 to a Sagami 1220 and a Kato motor (sorry, I cannot remember the exact spec on the Kato motor, but I believe it is the one used in the Mike). The ff-030 has a very clear low-speed advantage over the Sagami, and was comparable to (altho just slightly inferior to) the Kato motor. Still, an impressive result, even more so when one considers the price tag. Keep in mind I was comparing bare motors, not motors installed in locos, when I did this test. Daniel suggested using this motor in Trix Pacifics. This is exactly what I did - I've remotored three so far, and plan to do several more. The ones I did were all the 21:1 reduction gearing versions. The Trix Pacific was also made in a 25:1 reduction gearing version, and I've not tried remotoring one of those yet, but I see no reason why it should not work. It required a complete & total disassembly of the locomotive, and you will need to ruthlessly cut away the metal walls of the frame in the cab area and also saw away some metal immediately behind the worm wheel. You basically want to reduce the metal frame behind the worm wheel to nothing more than a flat platform. While it might sound like I used a Dremel or other power tools, I did not. Files, a razor saw, and a fine hacksaw blade (used just as a bare blade, without any saw handle) did the job. Use patience, think twice before sawing once, and you will be all right. Use the original Trix worm, and orient the motor so it stands the tall way. If you do everything rite, you won't need to shim the motor up or down at all - the worm will come out at just the correct height - how nice! Use bathtub caulk to attach the motor to the modified frame. Done correctly, the back of the motor will align perfectly with the back of the cab, and the front of the motor will extend nicely into the Belpaire firebox of the Trix shell. There is still sufficient room in the cab for a constant-lighting circuit, which I strongly recommend in this case since it helps reduce the voltage which is applied by the (12-volt) power pack to the (6 or 4.8 volt) motor. If you've remotored a loco before you should be able to handle all this with no problems. If you've never done a remotoring before, I recommend you read an in-depth article or two on the topic before trying this specific job. I recommend the NTRAK Steam Loco Manual (available from NTRAK). Finally, Daniel asked: >>> How did you get your gear off the shaft? (Even though they say it can be easily removed, it looks like I'll need a gear puller which I don't have). <<< I don't have a gear puller either. Do this: grab the spur gear in the jaws of a vise with the top half of the gear sticking out above the jaws and the motor drive shaft oriented horizontally. Slowly, very slowly, carefully file away at the brass gear until you just break thru to the steel drive shaft. As the brass and steel are different colors, you can see this immediately. Did I mention that you should work slowly? Don't file too far or you will file a significant flat spot onto the motor shaft (a teeny flat spot won't hurt). Did I stress that you should work slowly? This will help make the flat spot as small as possible. Then simply grab the body of the motor and pull the shaft out of the gear. If it won't move, make sure you have broken thru over the entire length of the gear. Also make sure the vise jaws are not compressing the gear against the motor shaft. In rare cases, if it is completely stubborn (usually not), enlist the aid of a small hammer and use a small nail or brad to push the motor shaft out of the gear. Good luck to you. The results in a Trix Pacific are worth it - you get an excellent-running mechanism for your trouble. A corresponding upgrade of the electrical pickup system may also be in order, to get a total performance improvement for the loco as a whole, but that is another matter. I'm quite happy with the results. If I didn't think it was worth doing, I wouldn't have done three of them, would I? If folks have specific questions of this conversion, I'd be happy to discuss. - Claus <end> Claus Schlund has been remotoring steam for years.
Gary - thanks very much! All your info is a little overwhelming , but it gives me good insight and links. Thanks Gregg, I was not aware that NWSL was in this business. Thanks again All, Hank [ 02 April 2001: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
