Matthias, you are very versatile, I am a professional of electricity and I really like wood, metal, stone, etc and everything related to craftsmanship, I am very happy every time I watch your videos, especially the quality of the image, the realization of the video and the cleaning of the environment in which you record. Thanks and waiting for the next one.
Hey Matthias, Just wanted to say you're by far my favorite content creator of any sort. I've been watching your videos for years, and I leave them on in the background all the time while I'm working on something. Despite how long I've been watching your videos and how frequently I rewatch them, you're still the only person who's new content I consume without fail. Thanks for all the great videos!
brilliant Matthias, once again demonstrating why you're my most anticipated video every week. the use of the electrical connector as a cam was my favourite.
Greetings Matthias Wendel sir, i am so grateful for your channel. Your work gives me such courage to try to make things. This Electric reciprocating engine, is both beautiful and simple. I have slowly been preparing to create my first work bench. This engine I wish to try first. Blessings, pierre from New Mexico
I had to chuckle when you say: "As an electric motor it is not very practical...," but I must say Matthias, as a learning tool for many of us, who may not be well versed in electrical devices, it is an excellent lesson and a fun project to follow, as you guide us through your assembly.
I subscribe to 2 channels, yours and Jeremy Schmidt's. Building projects from stuff in my garage and an occasional trip to Lowe's is what life's all about! I cant get enough of the electrical connectors you make using bent wire!
Matthias. Lots of comments so you may not see this one. Excellent build!!! Would be fun to see and old flat leather belt running from the flywheel to something that needs spinning? Perhaps a miniature saw mill blade?
+Matthias Wandel Not to really cut wood (tiny logs). Just a display or model. Well, if it didn't really cut wood, you probably wouldn't want to build it - haha. Plus it would probably remind you of all the work you had to do at your Fathers sawmill.
Thanks for always presenting a broad and interesting range of subjects. Please consider making a scissor lift. Many makers have reduced capacity to lift and move heavy objects. Many might find such a project challenging and helpful around the shop. Thanks again.
nightcoremixer1 Thank you. Well, if they're not into '70s music and they're addicted to the LATEST&NEWEST, last year Ciara made a nice cover of "Paint It, Black".
My Father has a box full of projects like this from High school.They were intriguing as a boy.His were all hand wound magnets of different function.I was the only ten year old who knew how an electric motor worked.
I've always loved solenoid motors :D! I've been meaning to build one for ages now from parts of an old harddrive, plus I have some hall sensors from an even older VCR :P
Very nice work! I'm curious how long you are able to run this continuously? In my experience typical solenoids have overheating issues when they are rapid cycled like this.
The only real power losses on this engine except the obvious mechanical and resistive losses on the coil are induced currents in the rod and loss of magnetic energy when the switch opens. The first can be eliminated by using a ferrite rod instead of a metal rod and the second if you use a small electronic circuit to redirect the magnetic energy to the source (or store it to a capacitor until the next cycle). Resistive losses can be reduced by carefully timing the on and off time of the coil to have it active only the time that it does the most work. Mechanical losses can be reduced by using bearings. After all that the final motor will actually be very energy efficient.
We had to make one of these in my electricity class in High school.We had to make the coil,and all the parts,and the better it worked the higher the grade.I really enjoyed this project back then.
Interrupting that coil like that must produce an unholy amount of back emf. A flyback diode might be a good idea. Great engine though, it's hypnotic like a steam engine.
A diode with a resistor in series (or a zener diode with a normal diode) will still collapse the magnetic field fast, yet they will reduce the back EMF to a predictable reasonable level. It will still dissipate the energy though. A little more complex circuit would be required to regenerate the energy.
Got some solenoids from one old multifunctional printer. Now I know what to do with them. Thank you. Now I need to find some use for all the stepper motors. :D
From what I've read so far, I guess it stores kinetic/rotational energy by basically getting a big heavy wheel to rotate. Now imagine turning the engine off, the flywheel will continue to spin for a while, so it has a lot of stored energy. And I guess when running normally, that energy is also continuously used. Interesting!
Main purpose is to keep the thing moving after the solenoid turns off. When that happens there is no force on the cam but the solenoid must be pushed back in before it can fire again. In order to do that the heavy flywheel is there to keep the shaft turning so that it comes around for a new cycle. Pretty similar to why internal combustion engines use flywheels. The flywheel there stores the energy produced by the power stoke where the explosion happens and gives off the energy in the next cycle to compress the air mixture again so that it can be fired again.
I had an assignment once to build an electric motor. I tried to build a reciprocating solenoid engine, as well. The main difference between yours and mine is that yours works and mine failed unspectacularly due to half-assery on my part.
Cool! I build one of these with a big solenoid from a copy machine and Meccano (Erector). After touching the "distributer wheel" once and felt pain I also installed a diode.
The same reason it needs a flywheel to run. There's a part in the cycle that the "engine" has to coast through. If there isn't enough rotational energy in the flywheel for that, it won't get to the next turn.
Ya, since the motor only has one cylinder is relies on the momentum from the flywheel to keep it going, and needs an initial kick to get going each time. I also presume that this engine could likely run in reverse if the kick was applied in the opposite direction.
I loved this, thank you. I must make the wooden air enging I got plans for if I can find them after 3 computer changes. They are spread all over an external hard drive so it'll be a bit of a detective story. Best Wishes, Brendan.
I made something similiar out of an old hard drive. I used the r/w head actuator as a solenoid and platter as a flywheel. It worked okay, but not nearly as well as yours due to the problems with triggering the solenoid.
Very cool, I'd love to see you attempt some wooden kinetic sculpture, something weight driven. I've been experimenting with axles using skateboard wheel bearings and dowels, they spin nicely and are really inexpensive. The bearings from roller blade wheels are good too, and are smaller. Both the skateboard and roller blade bearings can be friction fit into your frame.
Very Cool!!! I love all your creations and gadgets. I think it would be really awesome if you built a working steam engine, like with a hot plate or build it and place it on your stove to make steam. Just a thought.
it would need to have another funktion. just turning is a little boring. we do built bells with electric magnets and diy bells from sheets of copper though. the solenoid engine would work as a bell... you could make it hit the bell when it is pulling the shaft in.
So this is how woodworkers get into model enginebuilding eyh? Nice project! Would love to see a follow-up with something like a 5 solenoid radial engine. That should give a lot more oomph too! Thanks for sharing Mr Wandel!
Was the flywheel made out of European Buckthorn, by any chance? The size, colour and grain (and characteristic tear-out visible at 4:15) look a lot like it. The fact that it's also readily available (i.e., free) throughout southern Ontario also appeals to your thriftiness, I'm sure.
I wonder if adding a small weight at the end of the wire which hangs over the cam would give you higher RPM capability. Seems like you are depending on the springiness of the wire to bring it down and actually follow the contour of the cam. At higher RPMs I bet that cam can just about do a full revolution before the contact between the wires even breaks. Good idea with the screw too, though.
In retrospect a weight is a bad idea because it would give it inertia on the upward direction, right? Maybe a spring attached to the wire pulling downward, close to the cam.
RPM on this engine is limited by the high induction of the coil (it has a lot of turns on it), and it takes a few miliseconds to build up the magnetic field. But that also makes it fairly efficient. It barely gets warm.
I'd like to suggest a collaboration with Cody of Cody's Lab. With your mechanical/woodworking skills and his chemical/explosives skills, you two could do some astounding things, I'm sure. Maybe a subterranean marble track, using his mine? Or... ?
Make a train and power it with the flywheel :) that would be an interesting series, making the track and points for your homemade locomotive. Great vid btw
![โอ้เธอช่าง... - บี้เดอะสกา ft. ต๋อง เทวัญ (Prod. by ป๋าเพชร) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zbWhiLFmVL0/mqdefault.jpg)
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You should teach. Kids would love the way you explain stuff.
If I did that, I wouldn't have time to make videos, and you would have nothing to watch.
Matthias Wandel
You could just film the lessons. Make a neat TV show out of it, and have volunteers or staff edit the episodes down for youtube videos
Bob Y how to use a solenoid on a pocket hole jig
My 6 year old’s favorite channel ever since he was 3.
The most impressive thing about this video is saying "pull this e-clip off without losing it" and then you didn't lose it!!
I was waiting for that to fall across the room
e clip = jesus clip when it shoots of "jesus f#*k crist
Fun fact: the "e" stands for "escape."
the evil clip from e corp
My dad always called them that because he said when the flew off you looked upwards and asked "Jesus, where did it go?"
Matthias, you are very versatile, I am a professional of electricity and I really like wood, metal, stone, etc and everything related to craftsmanship, I am very happy every time I watch your videos, especially the quality of the image, the realization of the video and the cleaning of the environment in which you record.
Thanks and waiting for the next one.
Hey Matthias,
Just wanted to say you're by far my favorite content creator of any sort. I've been watching your videos for years, and I leave them on in the background all the time while I'm working on something. Despite how long I've been watching your videos and how frequently I rewatch them, you're still the only person who's new content I consume without fail.
Thanks for all the great videos!
James Watt is smiling in his grave. He would definitely like it...
A great man! Thanks for the reminder.
hole - 1st drill press channel !jhk
You mean Nikola Watt.
You always manage to create something that blows my mind, thanks Matthias.
brilliant Matthias, once again demonstrating why you're my most anticipated video every week. the use of the electrical connector as a cam was my favourite.
Greetings Matthias Wendel sir, i am so grateful for your channel. Your work gives me such courage to try to make things. This Electric reciprocating engine, is both beautiful and simple. I have slowly been preparing to create my first work bench. This engine I wish to try first. Blessings, pierre from New Mexico
I had to chuckle when you say: "As an electric motor it is not very practical...," but I must say Matthias, as a learning tool for many of us, who may not be well versed in electrical devices, it is an excellent lesson and a fun project to follow, as you guide us through your assembly.
This would make a fantastic project for schools to create and learn how electric solenoids work.
It's the joy of making it work, well done!
I subscribe to 2 channels, yours and Jeremy Schmidt's. Building projects from stuff in my garage and an occasional trip to Lowe's is what life's all about! I cant get enough of the electrical connectors you make using bent wire!
Mathius, your videos never cease to amaze me. Nice work on this simple engine.
Love those ONE-EPISODE videos. ! Thanks
I know right? Some youtubers would milk this by making the engine in a 17 video series with 10 minutes of rambling in each one....
wranglerstar?
why such hate-comment? respect each other,what you don't want to see; don't watch it
jeah, i think your right. Although i would not leave such comment.. but thats me
Yep
I really like when Matthias does electrical projects, I hope he does more in the future!
Your woodworking skills are very good. I am terrible working wood. I've always been a metal guy. Thanks for the info, much appreciated. Sam.
Matthias. Lots of comments so you may not see this one. Excellent build!!!
Would be fun to see and old flat leather belt running from the flywheel to something that needs spinning? Perhaps a miniature saw mill blade?
The engine isn't nearly powerful enough for that
+Matthias Wandel Not to really cut wood (tiny logs). Just a display or model. Well, if it didn't really cut wood, you probably wouldn't want to build it - haha. Plus it would probably remind you of all the work you had to do at your Fathers sawmill.
Thanks for always presenting a broad and interesting range of subjects. Please consider making a scissor lift. Many makers have reduced capacity to lift and move heavy objects. Many might find such a project challenging and helpful around the shop. Thanks again.
As a fellow engineer am so impressed with all you do. keep it up :-)
If DiResta talked and explained what he was doing in his videos... this is what it would look like. Great video!
Paint it green!
"I see a red door,
I want it painted bl.... green!"
your reffrence is perfect but i doubt many will get it sadly in this day and age
nightcoremixer1
Thank you.
Well, if they're not into '70s music and they're addicted to the LATEST&NEWEST, last year Ciara made a nice cover of "Paint It, Black".
I got it! 30yro
it's amazing how good you are by explaining complicated stuff like this. great work as usual! You have the best TH-cam woodworking channel by far!
My Father has a box full of projects like this from High school.They were intriguing as a boy.His were all hand wound magnets of different function.I was the only ten year old who knew how an electric motor worked.
I love your projects you are so good at coming up with a way to make everything by hand so simply. I love it
I've always loved solenoid motors :D! I've been meaning to build one for ages now from parts of an old harddrive, plus I have some hall sensors from an even older VCR :P
Very Cool! Love to see how you reuse or make do with what you have...problem solving and experimentation at its finest!
The use of Lignum vitae for the bearing blocks is a very nice touch!
Very nice work! I'm curious how long you are able to run this continuously? In my experience typical solenoids have overheating issues when they are rapid cycled like this.
I ran it for about 10 minutes. Average current at 12 volts is 100 miliamperes. Its a very efficient solenoid, so it only gets warm
The only real power losses on this engine except the obvious mechanical and resistive losses on the coil are induced currents in the rod and loss of magnetic energy when the switch opens. The first can be eliminated by
using a ferrite rod instead of a metal rod and the second if you use a small electronic circuit to redirect the magnetic energy to the source (or store it to a capacitor until the next cycle). Resistive losses can be reduced by carefully timing the on and off time of the coil to have it active only the time that it does the most work. Mechanical losses can be reduced by using bearings. After all that the final motor will actually be very energy efficient.
I like that you're not a slave to measuring everything.
We had to make one of these in my electricity class in High school.We had to make the coil,and all the parts,and the better it worked the higher the grade.I really enjoyed this project back then.
Beautifully made and works great. Thank you
"on the next episode, i'll be turning this into a table saw."
might have enough power for a light duty scroll saw
to cut paper, maybe
It's like 0.0001 HP
Never said it would be a big tablesaw.
maybe not practical but ingenius and fascinating to watch you fabricate everything you needed to do it. great video. 👍👍
These are fun to make . I used a flywheel from an old VCR which are polished aluminum and perfectly balanced already.
I love when you tinker around. This looks like ti was a fun little project - just because you can. Scott
I am very impressed with your business you are really creative I'm from Iraq, a good observer you
What a fun project! Nicely done.
He should write a project book for young teen nerds.
Matthias you are the coolest dude on the planet. Keep up the awesome work!
Lavoro professionale. Molto bello. Complimenti
Interrupting that coil like that must produce an unholy amount of back emf. A flyback diode might be a good idea. Great engine though, it's hypnotic like a steam engine.
A flyback diode would delay the collapse of the magnetic field, which would slow it down. So far, no issues with the contacts.
If it was causing an arc across the contacts, then some form of snubber would help, but as for now, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 👱🏻
A diode with a resistor in series (or a zener diode with a normal diode) will still collapse the magnetic field fast, yet they will reduce the back EMF to a predictable reasonable level. It will still dissipate the energy though. A little more complex circuit would be required to regenerate the energy.
Ficou perfeito este motor solenoide. Parabéns! Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil
Did you have to adjust the timing of the contact or did it came right at the first try? looks great
Got some solenoids from one old multifunctional printer. Now I know what to do with them. Thank you. Now I need to find some use for all the stepper motors. :D
One of my favorite quick videos you've done, Matthias. What is a flywheel for, specifically? To balance it and keep it stable?
I think it's to give it momentum... but I could be completely wrong!
From what I've read so far, I guess it stores kinetic/rotational energy by basically getting a big heavy wheel to rotate. Now imagine turning the engine off, the flywheel will continue to spin for a while, so it has a lot of stored energy. And I guess when running normally, that energy is also continuously used. Interesting!
Also for the point when the contact is open to spin the whole thing through a cycle until the contact closes again.
Main purpose is to keep the thing moving after the solenoid turns off. When that happens there is no force on the cam but the solenoid must be pushed back in before it can fire again. In order to do that the heavy flywheel is there to keep the shaft turning so that it comes around for a new cycle.
Pretty similar to why internal combustion engines use flywheels. The flywheel there stores the energy produced by the power stoke where the explosion happens and gives off the energy in the next cycle to compress the air mixture again so that it can be fired again.
It's for inertia, without the flywheel it wouldn't turn constantly.
i play these while i am falling asleep and pretend it's my dad spending time with me
same.
very sad... :(
/r/meirl
Ow. That struck close to home
I'm a father of a 2yr old daughter. I want to be such a father that spent time together and "play&learn(teach)"
So satisfying to watch, well done
I had an assignment once to build an electric motor. I tried to build a reciprocating solenoid engine, as well. The main difference between yours and mine is that yours works and mine failed unspectacularly due to half-assery on my part.
Cool! I build one of these with a big solenoid from a copy machine and Meccano (Erector). After touching the "distributer wheel" once and felt pain I also installed a diode.
Excellent video, that was a very nice project.
Nice. Why did you have to give it that little push in order to start?
Probably to activate the solenoid, afterwards it moves along and activates itself.
Position of the crank and the solenoid not being strong enough.
Thanks to both
The same reason it needs a flywheel to run. There's a part in the cycle that the "engine" has to coast through. If there isn't enough rotational energy in the flywheel for that, it won't get to the next turn.
Ya, since the motor only has one cylinder is relies on the momentum from the flywheel to keep it going, and needs an initial kick to get going each time. I also presume that this engine could likely run in reverse if the kick was applied in the opposite direction.
I love the sound that it makes.
I loved this, thank you. I must make the wooden air enging I got plans for if I can find them after 3 computer changes. They are spread all over an external hard drive so it'll be a bit of a detective story.
Best Wishes, Brendan.
My Friday is now complete! Thanks Matthias ;)
Nice demo of linear motion to cylindrical. Thanks Matthias.
Awesome build and a good explanation as well. Thank you!
You have done it again again!
doing things for fun is the best motive! Another great vid, thanks.
I envy your mind so much Mr. Wandel. I hope I can be half the engineer you are.
cool...I really like the sound of it .
You say that is nor practical, I say who cares, it is beautiful. Thank you once again. pierre
Any idea what device that solenoid was originally scavenged from? Awesome video!
I made something similiar out of an old hard drive. I used the r/w head actuator as a solenoid and platter as a flywheel. It worked okay, but not nearly as well as yours due to the problems with triggering the solenoid.
I really like the lignum vitae bearings. Classic!
oddly enough I love these videos fro some reason I think it's because I love making things and doing projects
Great project and video - just like the others. Thanks
I really enjoyed this video, thanks Matthias.
thanks,nice little project. Enjoyed as always
Hi, thanks for posting such useful video, just wonder any test has been done on accuracy or squareness of the table? that'd be much appreciated. Best!
by attaching a motor to the fly wheel you can use this mechine in reverse to operate in a linear action. And that could prove quite useful.
Very cool, I'd love to see you attempt some wooden kinetic sculpture, something weight driven. I've been experimenting with axles using skateboard wheel bearings and dowels, they spin nicely and are really inexpensive. The bearings from roller blade wheels are good too, and are smaller. Both the skateboard and roller blade bearings can be friction fit into your frame.
Es una genialidad !!! muy buen proyecto . Matthias
Might not be practical, but it is definitely informative and fun!
Very Cool!!! I love all your creations and gadgets. I think it would be really awesome if you built a working steam engine, like with a hot plate or build it and place it on your stove to make steam. Just a thought.
Dude, you should be working for the Canadian Space Agency. Brilliant!
Lovely little project. Triple-like!
That would be a great project for someone to make, for a school science or electrical class!
it would need to have another funktion. just turning is a little boring. we do built bells with electric magnets and diy bells from sheets of copper though. the solenoid engine would work as a bell... you could make it hit the bell when it is pulling the shaft in.
Very interesting... where did you get those solenoids? 🤓👍🏼
So this is how woodworkers get into model enginebuilding eyh? Nice project! Would love to see a follow-up with something like a 5 solenoid radial engine. That should give a lot more oomph too! Thanks for sharing Mr Wandel!
This is probably the cutest motor I've ever seen. I really want to build one now. What did you get that solenoid out of?
Was the flywheel made out of European Buckthorn, by any chance? The size, colour and grain (and characteristic tear-out visible at 4:15) look a lot like it. The fact that it's also readily available (i.e., free) throughout southern Ontario also appeals to your thriftiness, I'm sure.
This is sooo cool.
Build an RC "car" that is mechanically powered by that electric engine!
I wonder if adding a small weight at the end of the wire which hangs over the cam would give you higher RPM capability. Seems like you are depending on the springiness of the wire to bring it down and actually follow the contour of the cam. At higher RPMs I bet that cam can just about do a full revolution before the contact between the wires even breaks. Good idea with the screw too, though.
In retrospect a weight is a bad idea because it would give it inertia on the upward direction, right? Maybe a spring attached to the wire pulling downward, close to the cam.
RPM on this engine is limited by the high induction of the coil (it has a lot of turns on it), and it takes a few miliseconds to build up the magnetic field. But that also makes it fairly efficient. It barely gets warm.
Hello Matthias-
Great little motor you have there. The simplicity is wonderful. What is the solenoid out of may I ask?
What hand exercises do you use to swing mallets and hammers so quickly?
Mr. Wendel sir, I also like that you did not add a reed switch. pierre
To heck with practical - this is just awesome fun!
Pretty cool build!
that's really cool. might have to try that one myself
What a fun project. love it.
That does look like fun!
very nice
Wow, that's really cool! Would be awesome at a fair as some sort of model or something!
i luv this been wanting to make one for a little wile now
Always awesome sir. What was the bearings material? Ligumatie? Thank you very much.
I'd like to suggest a collaboration with Cody of Cody's Lab. With your mechanical/woodworking skills and his chemical/explosives skills, you two could do some astounding things, I'm sure. Maybe a subterranean marble track, using his mine? Or... ?
Why is the end result so hilarious!
Make a train and power it with the flywheel :) that would be an interesting series, making the track and points for your homemade locomotive. Great vid btw
Don't coils in mechanical solenoids get pretty hot? Could you use a fan on/as the flywheel to cool the solenoid if this is the case?
this one barely gets warm. Averare current is 100 milliamperes
Nicely done! And where did you find that solenoid?
Nice bit of reinventing the wheel :)