Converting old stuff!

I was wondeign if I could make an old food proccessor or a blender into a motor for a bike or a small boat?

I was thinking of somethinking that could assist me while I pedal or paddle, I don't think a blender has enough power to move anything from a dead stop.

I volunteer at a thrift store and we get a lot of motorized household appliances in.

also... is there anyway to make these motors make power? spin them backwards? lol?

I don't know much about electronics

 

It could be done but you might need a pretty long and expensive extension cord.

 

or a gas generator to run them...which kind of defeats the purpose

 

lol I was thinking a little greener, using solar power, and car batteries

 

oh right.... any idea what to do??????????????????

 

why not just skip the converting hassle and just use a 12volt trolling motor on your boat...charge the battery with a solar panel (i recommend deep cycle batt if you plan on getting more than a few uses outta it)

trolling motor would probably be good too for bike use since its already 12volt so that gets rid of all the inverter problems...(im laughing now imagining a guy on a bike with a trolling motor on the back with a huge fan blade installed where the prop should be )

 

haha! that would be funny!

what inverter problems do you mean?

 

the price of the good ones is usually a problem

 

If you're really serious about developing something like this, I would suggest getting a degree in electronic engineering. My brother is an electronic engineer, but he is busy working on a machine that goes through a cycle to sterilize an entire room full of objects.

The best thing to do with old outdated and useless electrical appliances would be to dismantle them and seperate the copper, steel, and plastic then recycle them.

 

I'm going to be moving out into nature, and I want to bring a few truck loads of old stuff with me, to tinker with, to bring new life to the old.

I will have a 30km boat ride to get into town, so I was hoping for something to make the trip easier :S

I'm not going to buy something new, like a trolling motor, when I can convert a 2$ blender :S

is there anyway to get batteries that use the blenders power type?

I'm not trying to make something more eco friendly, I wil just be living sooo remotely it will make more sense to use electricity that I generate than to go far out of my way to gather liquid fuels

 

Yes, well, the mind boggles at the possibilities.

 

why so focussed on using machines?...wouldnt a small barge be better?...pedal powered paddle wheel or something like that

 

If I can hook this up to a canoe or kayak I can go back and forth to town without getting too tired

I could deffinately build a barge,but I would have to equip it with a small gas powered motor, I don't think I could move something that big with people power I would need a lot of people! and a lot of bikes of something :S

 

An interesting thread

 

A motor out of a common household appliance runs on 120V AC. A solar powered apparatus would give 12V DC. The inverter chops the DC into pulses, 120 hz to be exact as two pulses are needed for one cycle, changing the polarity every pulse.

You could build an inverter out of a microwave and a few heavy transistors. But it's so much easier to buy one for 20 bucks.

Now there are DC motors that would work right off the battery. They contain brushes and a commutator which will wear out after so many miles (replacement parts are cheap though, and easily found for free if you know where to look).

Personally I recommend compressed air, however unless you have a compressor made to go up to 2000psi, your going to pay out the rear for recharging the tanks every day.