What to do with electric motor?

[HogieWan]

I broke my coffee grinder this morning (I broke the "safety switch" part). After fighting it for a while my wife agreed we'd just buy a new one. So, what do I do? Take it apart, of course. And upon taking it apart, I realized there's a nice sized, 120 volt motor inside. Take a look at the attached photo.

I immediately started thinking of what I could use it for in the brewhouse. I first thought I'd use it to drive my mill, but it's already set up for a drill and that works just fine.

My next thought was, "how would one make a pump?"

I started thinking about it and realized a piston moving in a cylinder, with valves on either side, it could pull liquid in when drawing "up" the cylinder, and push liquid out when drawing "down"

I'm sure there are pumps made this way, but can this work for moving beer around. My main reason for wanting a pump would be for vorlauf, but if it's there, moving sparge water and moving wort to the fermenter would be great.

Any comments on whether this would be worth trying? What materials I should use or stay away from? Whether I am a complete idiot? Is there a better use for this?

The only problem is I've never really had a desire to have a pump until I found this motor, so if this doesn't work, I may have to buy one.

[Halgarmeister]

Before you read my comment, let me say that I'm the first one to advocate the recycling useful things that otherwise would be garbage can weights. I've repaired many a broken item or reused salvaged components in lots of projects. That being said...

Odds are it's going to spin too fast for a pump, unless you put a variable control on it. Next, the motor isn't housed, not protected from moisture and it's NOT grounded, all things that come in handy when dealing with liquids. Last, by the time you purchase a food grade impeller/pump, figure out a way to jury rig it to the motor, and everything else involved, you'd be better off just buying a dedicated purpose built unit. Your time is worth money and the parts aren't free. Just my .02

I'd go back to thinking about attaching it to the mill, or add a fan blade to keep you cool on brew day.

[dparsons]

I'd check how powerful the motor is. Seems to me a drill needs to be more powerful than a coffee grinder. If strong enough, I'd check the rpms. Its likely its designed to operate at a specific rate and you would have to gear it to get your mill spinning properly for grain.

[MichaelM]

build a centrifuge gun??? Nothing like shooting soda cans with a good old movie can centrifuge gun.......

[HogieWan]

The pump is really the idea I am shooting for. I actually thought of building this a while back to be driven by hand for the express purpose of recirculation (with the help of a grant to keep flow steady from the bottom of the mash). Now that I found this motor, maybe I could subtitute human power for some electricity.

If you look at my crude sketch, I intend the moving piston to create alternating pressure to push the liquid. When the piston comes up, there will be lowered pressure. The left (in) valve will let liquid in, but the right (out) valve will keep the already pumped liquid from flowing back. When the piston comes down, the pressure will rise and the right (out) valve will let liquid out while the left (in) valve assures no backflow.

As I stated, I may build this for human-power, so I could use a little advice on materials and such. Any help getting this extra motor in there is a bonus.

[HogieWan]

Apparently, I'm looking to make a "reciprocating piston pump" as found in spray bottles (http://science.howstuffworks.com/question673.htm)

[danno]

you could build a magnetic stirrer out of it fairly easily... no torque issues there...

[Mad Scientist]

I like the stirrer idea, but you'll have to figure out a way to throttle that motor back, with a dimmer switch or something like that.

Something else you might consider is to use this to drive a peristaltic pump head, which you could grab off of fleaby for pretty cheap. Just make sure it will take a tubing size larger enough to give you enough flow.

[HogieWan]

I like the peristaltic pump idea - I might even be able to build something like that!

[B_rad1969]

I like to re-use things too and fix them. I however learned that my time is worth something. Something small like that without much force behind it leaves me clueless as to what you could REALLY do with it.

[Beerbilly]

Don't kid yourself those little AC motors pack some torque in those small packages, especially if you mess around with different gear ratios. There is a store here in town that sells all kind of surplus pumps that you could drive with that little motor, I will be by there tomorrow anyway so I will see what I can find.

Bill

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Beerbilly
Don't kid yourself those little AC motors pack some torque in those small packages, especially if you mess around with different gear ratios. There is a store here in town that sells all kind of surplus pumps that you could drive with that little motor, I will be by there tomorrow anyway so I will see what I can find.

Bill

I figured there would be a good bit of torque here as it's a 120V motor. Thanks in advance for checking on those pumps.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Beerbilly
Don't kid yourself those little AC motors pack some torque in those small packages, especially if you mess around with different gear ratios. There is a store here in town that sells all kind of surplus pumps that you could drive with that little motor, I will be by there tomorrow anyway so I will see what I can find.

Bill

And what town would that be? We always like to know, b/c if you are close we can trade beer 'n stuff

[Beerbilly]

Houston, Texas. There is a electronic components store here that also has tons of surplus goodies, not mentioning a large motor and pump collection. HogieWan: What kind of flow rate are you looking for? I am running by there today to pick up an enclosure for my freezer control circuit.

[Otis_The_Drunk]

Hogie, trust me on this, make the stir plate..... I really think it's the better of the two ideas.
Well barring the centrifuge gun for shooting soda cans :D

[HogieWan]

I have no use for a stir plate - I have many uses for a pump.

As I said earlier - I'm building a pump, even if it's hand driven for recirc. Adding a motor so I can use it in other parts of the brew session is gravy.

[dparsons]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I have no use for a stir plate - I have many uses for a pump.

As I said earlier - I'm building a pump, even if it's hand driven for recirc. Adding a motor so I can use it in other parts of the brew session is gravy.


But WE don't want to make the pump, so we're going to tell you how to make other things. :p