Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well, I have been searching for a job for a while, but I'm not really finding much that I can do without having a college degree (Fancy that...) that isn't dishwashing or the like, stuff that isn't really going to take me anywhere. Every job I have applied to has either turned me down or hasn't got back to me, and it is getting to the point where I am going to have to join the military here pretty soon if things down turn out better (not saying the military is bad, but if I join the military, I'm going as a soldier, and I don't really want to get shot... War is fun in games, but not so much IRL).

Anyway, as you guys know, necessity is the mother of invention, and invent I have. I KNOW how to solve the worlds energy problems, to get rid of our dependance on oil and everything. I KNOW how to do it. I KNOW it can/will work. But I have run into a snag. I have about 75% of the items I require to create a small model of my generator so I can go to NASA or somebody to get a loan and help to build a real working generator, but I need a motor that is small enough to be powered by my power source but large enough to be able to lift 2-4 pounds of weight.

Now, here comes one of the main problems; I can't tell you guys what my idea is, because I'm paranoid as hell and don't want anyone to steal it from me, not saying I don't trust you guys, but this site isn't exactly locked down on the internet.

What I need to know is, does anyone know of a motor that would be able to lift 2-4 pounds and could run off of enough electricity that could power a flashlight? Preferably in the <$100 price range.

I have a friend who is a real gear/motor head, but since he is 18, in college, and has a daughter on the way.... he has been understandably slow in getting back to me.

Thanks in advance.

Many of my friends that work in technical fields don't have college degrees (including myself).
If you can do the work, you can find a job. Though you may have to move.
This really isn't the site for this endeavor and it would benefit you to spend your time look for access to some work that is at least peripherally in connection with the vector that you want to move in.
Sweep some floors in a machine shop, do paper work in a test lab, work in an industry warehouse, get a job with a power company, pull cable for an electrician... etc.

If your scope of view is either College or Dishwashing/Military, NASA (or somebody else) isn't going to be interested.
"They" won't be interested because "they'll" doubt your ability to problem-solve, not because of a lack of education.

It sounds marginal at best that you "know" enough to make "it" work if you haven't the ability to google/wiki even the basic information to find a motor to complete your project plans.

... So instead of asking for people to do the work for you, why not make this thread an Off Topic Project Blog?
You would get more support that way.

Belphegor wrote:Many of my friends that work in technical fields don't have college degrees (including myself).
If you can do the work, you can find a job. Though you may have to move.
This really isn't the site for this endeavor and it would benefit you to spend your time look for access to some work that is at least peripherally in connection with the vector that you want to move in.
Sweep some floors in a machine shop, do paper work in a test lab, work in an industry warehouse, get a job with a power company, pull cable for an electrician... etc.

If your scope of view is either College or Dishwashing/Military, NASA (or somebody else) isn't going to be interested.
"They" won't be interested because "they'll" doubt your ability to problem-solve, not because of a lack of education.

It sounds marginal at best that you "know" enough to make "it" work if you haven't the ability to google/wiki even the basic information to find a motor to complete your project plans.

... So instead of asking for people to do the work for you, why not make this thread an Off Topic Project Blog?
You would get more support that way.

I have the perfect plan to make NASA interested, I just need this motor to get it working. There are two ways of getting people to do what you want: Telling them what they want to hear, or making them think it's their idea in the first place. My plan involves the second.

As for googling motor to complete it, have you tried to google motor? Motor cars, motor trucks, motor vehicles, buying motors, motor boats.... Google is nice, but anyone who has done a youtube/google search lately knows that while you can find some helpful info on there (thats how I figured out which parts to use in this thing in the first place, sans motor), it can be a pain finding any sort of specific information on there. I came on here because I was hopeing to have someone who could tell me and save me some time (probably one of the few resources I don't have alot of, at the moment).

As for "knowing" "it" will work, you know what they say: To be 100% sure about something, you need to know absolutely everything or nothing about it.

Thank you for your reply.

If your being serious, then I suggest looking at McMaster Carr, google them, and see what motors they have avalible. Your probably going to need some gearing to get a motor to lift 2 to 4 pounds while only requiring 1.5 to 6 volts.

Catyrpelius wrote:If your being serious, then I suggest looking at McMaster Carr, google them, and see what motors they have avalible. Your probably going to need some gearing to get a motor to lift 2 to 4 pounds while only requiring 1.5 to 6 volts.

Thanks, googling now.

Sorry for ignorance, but what do you mean gearing?

I would be interested out of perfessional curiosity to hear more of your invention, I hope its more then just powering a motor that lifts a weight useing a dynamo flashlight, then allowing to weight to fall back down to create energy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Slarg232 wrote:Sorry for ignorance, but what do you mean gearing?

Gear reduction, in your example it would take a fast spinning low powered motor and turn it into a slow spinning high power motor. Sort of like a transmission on a car, only simpler.

Catyrpelius wrote:I would be interested out of perfessional curiosity to hear more of your invention, I hope its more then just powering a motor that lifts a weight useing a dynamo flashlight, then allowing to weight to fall back down to create energy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Slarg232 wrote:Sorry for ignorance, but what do you mean gearing?

Gear reduction, in your example it would take a fast spinning low powered motor and turn it into a slow spinning high power motor. Sort of like a transmission on a car, only simpler.

No, that's not it, but it is close. Someone already doing/done that?

Thanks for the definition.

First off you wont find any commercially avalible motor that will run of the amount of energy created by the dynamo in a flashlight, and all that system is doing is converting one form of energy into another and back again. You dont really gain anything from it.

Catyrpelius wrote:First off you wont find any commercially avalible motor that will run of the amount of energy created by the dynamo in a flashlight, and all that system is doing is converting one form of energy into another and back again. You dont really gain anything from it.

Dude, you just scared the gak out of me, but no, I'm not using a Dynamo, so I'm still good. I think I have figured out what I needed to, thank you for the link to the motor site.

I still would like to know what exactly it is your makeing

No, that's not it, but it is close. Someone already doing/done that?

If that was close, don't bother. You're violating the laws of thermodynamics, and it won't work.

Catyrpelius wrote:I still would like to know what exactly it is your makeing

All in due time. I'll be cutting it close, but if I can get all I need, I should have it built (very ugly like, but I'm a function over form kind of guy) in a month, provided I don't get royally screwed over at some point.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Laughing Man wrote:

No, that's not it, but it is close. Someone already doing/done that?

If that was close, don't bother. You're violating the laws of thermodynamics, and it won't work.

Perhaps, we shall see.

I was gunna try and let him down easy, lol.

1. You cannot win (that is, you cannot get something for nothing, because matter and energy are conserved).

2. You cannot break even (you cannot return to the same energy state, because there is always an increase in disorder; entropy always increases).

3. You cannot get out of the game (because absolute zero is unattainable).

I don't know why people complain about Google being hard to use. They're called quotation marks and minuses :p