Is 3D Printing a motor possible? (Experiment)

[@ChristophLaimer]

Thanks for sharing this video. It's a great dejavu :-) - I've done similar mistakes, when I created my first design. A "traditional" BLDC stator design doesn't work well with non-ferromagnetic material. The copper wires need to be much closer at the magnets. Similar as coreless or ironless designs.

[@colhany]

Immediatly thought about you when I saw the title of this video!

[@anchoriticparliament6343]

Hey! It's the guy!

[@colhany]

The genius! Why have you gone inactive tho? Your videos were so golden, we need more!

[@Selcuk9805]

your videos are educational and fun. please come back

[@DesumeSan]

@@colhany I went to comment about Christoph Laimer's KZbin channel when I saw the vid

[@sortofsmarter]

I love how you show your failed attempts, it makes me feel so much better at my burned up projects. Great job BTW..

[@avishekpal6385]

Been winding this coil for 4 weeks. I no longer remember the face of my girlfriend.

[@sharadkumarsingh8972]

@@octaviusgalacticus2253 lol, she definitely left him after seeing his swollen eyes

[@letitrotfuckit]

at least you are free now.

[@averagecommenter4623]

You didn't remember before you started... *You never had one...*

[@MasterofOrion]

@@averagecommenter4623 Bruh WUT

[@goyumsandeepa7322]

Such a noble gentleman😂

[@anasbintin5989]

I discovered this channel recently and absolutely love it because it showcases rather unsuccessful as much as successful attempts which is different from other channels and it teaches more because not everybody tells you what setup works and what doesn't. It also creates an environment of discussion much like the ones found in Universities where students and teachers discuss an idea how it came to be, how it works and doesn't work which is the environment and mindset that allowed hobbyists to thrive in the first place. I need a couple of days to watch the videos relevant to my work but so far it's great

[@nandobike]

I love how you give proper credit. That is the spirit. Keep up the good job!

[@nathanford9096]

I've tried 3D printed parts for many different high heat applications. PLA always gets soggy, and ABS works somewhat better, but still gets soggy. My guess is if you really wanted to do that right, you could use Nylon, because it has a higher melt and (I think) glass transition temp. I always wanted to try this, this is seriously really cool!

[@chipheadnet]

frickin' awesome! Even a fail is progress!

[@diegodonofrio]

Your videos are amazing, thanks for the job

[@JonathanZigler]

What was the infill, if you could increase the density you might have better luck

[@americanengineering2063]

bout like jlc pcb charging 25$ for shipping. even a fail is a progress when youtubers are involved apparently.

[@nicknevco215]

the best part of science and engineering finding ways to improve

[@NightgameSession]

haha, forget a counterweight for the whole wooden structure

[@salutoitoi]

Failure is a way to success (said by me, the man that fails 9/10 projects).

[@cheetahkid]

I am more likely almost a total failure, I had out of say 2000 project, pass rate is likely to make money possible 20, think that is not bad at all. So I say 99/100

[@jrigvd7291]

@@cheetahkid you should be glad with even 99/100 projects... I cancel most of mine halfway through because I lack the motivation to finish it.

[@hamzamehmood1976]

I built a signal amplifier after designing and testing it different stages in one month it failed or better say burn out in final day of submission

[@jrigvd7291]

@@hamzamehmood1976 I'd still hand it in. Learning about what went wrong is a more valuable lesson than finishing a product (in my opinion it is at least).

[@hamzamehmood1976]

@@jrigvd7291 yeah right

[@EliCDavis]

Too often people hide their failures and only publish findings if considered satisfactory. Thank you for showcasing your failures and detailing problems you had with your experiment for all of us to learn from.

[@boelwerkr]

I made a laminated iron rotor from zinc coated iron sheets. You can "stamp" (saw) them out stack them up and then soft solder them together. After some filing and balancing it worked really good. BUT you need to have the patience. I had tow saw 50 pates with a jigsaw. It's important to clean them up and press them together before soldering.

[@sammeyerson1577]

I really appreciate your video because in science, most are only focused on success but there are a million failures that come in experimenting. Failure is valuable data and shows just how hard the see e things can be. Please keep up the great work. I always learn something new from your videos

[@Oscar-gx2yf]

I love this, even though you way over complicated the testing for the torque, it was an awesome build.

[@Electroblud]

Using normal 0.2mm steel sheets ("Billiges Gießkannenblech") works totally fine for building motors. The efficiency will not be super high end, but it will be fine. They do need to be coated with insulating laquer though.

[@yosyp5905]

How do you turn them around?

[@Electroblud]

@@yosyp5905 What do you mean turn them around?

[@MsSomeonenew]

That idea would certainly be worth a new experiment.

[@Stoney3K]

@@yosyp5905 There's no need to turn them around. Get the sheets cut in bulk (laser cutting works fine here), lacquer them, and stack. You have your stator right there, ready for winding. There's no problem in printing the central core of the stator.

[@kevincote8072]

This was not a fail. It was an opportunity to learn. Thumbs up for posting.

[@tasmedic]

Your experiment was not a failure. I'm sure not only you, but all of us watching your channel, learned a lot from it.

[@floatbob4281]

I was just looking at videos on that filament and in 2 minutes you post this. Worth it being subscribed

[@bartwaggoner2000]

Scott shows the way to innovate!

[@cforn]

Excellent video. I try never to underestimate the value of negative data. My failures have always taught me more than my successes. Well done!

[@reasonablebeing5392]

Great Vid. Would like to see a follow up where you 3D print the thin laminations with the iron protopasta and stack them (maybe make a hole or holes in each laminate and use a non-ferrous pin or pins to keep them aligned). My other thought would be to laser cut your laminations. The cool thing about these trials is that with a little ingenuity you can use 3D printed parts in a lot of situations.

[@eventseen7317]

You will reach 1 million subscribers by the end of this year. Your videos are so clean & helpful!

[@OpreanMircea]

I love you don't shy away from your failures

[@diodazelena3330]

I think the reason why 3D printed motors had so high RPM in no load operation in comparision with regular motor is because every DC motor wants to spin with RPM so high, that voltage induced on armature is equal to supply voltage (with opposite polarity, so armature current is close to zero in no load operation) . In regular motor almost all magnetic flux from permanent magnets is flowing through core of coils, so according to Faraday´s law (Ui=-N*d phi/dt), the induced voltage is high enough even at small RPM. In 3D printed motor, the core of coils has very poor magnetic conductivity (even magnetic filament, it has relative permeability not much higher than 1), so only small part of permanent magnet flux is flowing through coil cores (the rest of flux is flowing through surrounding air), so the RPM needed for Ui=-N*d phi/dt to be equal to supply voltage is much higher. The results would be much better, if the core was made from epoxy resin mixed with high amount of iron dust, that would be awesome video by the way :)

[@revimfadli4666]

Now the question is how to cast the epoxy with high precision:)) nice idea btw

[@artbyrobot1]

@@revimfadli4666 casting the epoxy would only require 3-D printing the shape you want, putting that in a cup and pouring in two-part mold making silicone, cutting the silicone negative in half and then pouring in the epoxy and iron dust mixture and letting it cure. Not that hard.

[@akkudakkupl]

@@artbyrobot1 Remember to do that under vacuum and to vibrate the mold, otherwise you will get air inclusions in the cast part.

[@CrazyNerdInventor]

What about putting an iron nail through each of the fins?

[@MobiusHorizons]

You will definitely need neodymium iron boron magnets instead of ferrite magnets if you hope to have usable torque. You might be able to 3d the stator hollow and fill it with iron filings to improve the permeability of your core.

[@real4487]

My Finger Automatically taps the video after reading Great Scott written under.

[@greatscottlab]

Good....good....

[@dakotadirden9834]

Same lol

[@real4487]

@Mr hahaha nice one 😂

[@churinvideo]

You are a great educator! Thank you for your wonderful videos. I always learn from them. Keep pumping out content. The Internet needs you!

[@sixtyfiveford]

Pure awesomeness!

[@ddegn]

Thanks for sharing your failures with us. I didn't think this was going to work but it was still fun to watch.

[@Alex0474]

Really different kind of video. *I like it!*

[@bernard2735]

Excellent video. Any experiment that gives a result generates new knowledge, even if that knowledge is how not to do something.

[@conilas6103]

1Million subs soon !!!!!!! Be ready dear Great Scott

[@vitorbentohugo]

Good afternoon, another simple way to measure power of the motors, would be connecting in a motor generator, congratulations for the excellent video.

[@Reynicolerio93]

Maybe the motor didn't reach self-synchronism in your set up and didn't start up because the inductance values of the phases were too low and the esc could not maintain synchronism. As a matter of fact the normal BLDC motor started properly while the other two didn't want to start. This is not true, of course, in case there is no load attached to the motor, like you showed previously in the video. Let me know if you think this is a possible interpretation of the problem. Great work as always.

[@jakegarrett8109]

Yes, the prop's momentum was too much for take off. Those ESC's are blind and can only see position through back EMF, so they can only guess what to do during take off. That was a massive prop, and since he was clocking in some 3000 kV with the new motors, he should be using like a 6 inch prop made out of something light, like plastic. That same motor in a 3000 kV configuration would probably do the same as he showed (I've made this mistake before too, I tried to put a massive 13 inch carbon prop on to a 2204 2300 kV junk motor just to see if it could slowly spin it, and well... Its not the first motor I've set fire to, and it won't be my last, haha!

[@raykent3211]

Yeah, it's start up, where accelerating the mass of the propellor presents a significant load. Once spinning, the load is aerodynamic and little to do with the mass of the propellor. As a follow up he might consider printing a centrifugal clutch. The input to that will spin with a feeble motor, it can't stall. The output torque is a measure of the best the motor can do.

[@giovannibianchessi1578]

I suppose, if the inductance is lower, the motor is defluxed, so it spins faster but it has lower torque. And the torque is not enough to start the motor spinning with a load.

[@PenZon]

Seems it might be a synchronization problem. That might be possible to remedy by simply introducing a flywheel. More rotational mass. Would be very interesting to see what sort of efficiency you could get out of your stators if you can manage to get your controllers to actually, well, control the motors. I hope there is a part 2 in the future.

[@HeyV63]

5:14 : what is a Macrenwiiii??? Just kidding, I raised an eyebrow for two seconds before seeing it written down µH.

[@maxczarnecki0]

Its magrenry

[@PhG1961]

Of course I enjoyed the video. GreatScott is also very entertaining and has a great ingenuity ! Cary on and make a motor that rocks !!

[@mikevegeto1101]

Steel motor cores are built with many insulated layers to increase eddy currents (which I think would show up as higher inductance). Maybe adding multiple insulated layers to the ferromagnetic filament would increase the torque and decrease the k/v rating

[@vincentstuchly8021]

I am hearing about the feromagnetic filament for the first time and I'm excited! Ok what I'll write is just my naive optimism, but we got conductive filament and ferromagnetic, what 'bout stick them both into multimaterial 3D printer and try to print stator right away! :D I know conductive filament has too high resistance and ferromagnetic one is not a good ferromagnet. But hell yeah completely 3D printed motors sounds like a kinda thing we need to pull off completely 3D printed machines!

[@CarlBugeja]

Nice! You should try PCB Motors 😉 brushless motor esc are usually designed to cater for specific motor parameters. Given that the torque of your motor changed it is probably failing the open-loop startup algorithm of the esc

[@GoPaintman]

Would printing the stator with "slots" in the cores be possible? In the slots you could glue in steel, and possibly help up the inductance.

[@BrandonDKirkwood]

Lassi Kinnunen god I love living in the future

[@eastwardeye593]

if you use solid steel rods, refer to 0:50 to see why it's not a good idea. unless you use the same technique of "laminating" the steel.

[@KingQuetzal]

@Lassi Kinnunen The very most practical thing would be to 3d print a design and then make a reusable mold of it with silicon or something. From there you can make wax positives to make metal casts with.

[@jimmyscott5144]

What’s funny is that video you kept mentioning I had already seen it and loved it lol

[@TheDIYScienceGuy]

Nice video! I definitely learned something! One learns the most when failing! Keep up the good work!

[@bobbystaley9709]

Nice videos 👍🏻

[@4560123678]

GreatScott, you should set up a 3d printer with duel heads so that you can print a layer of the magnetic filament and then a layer of abs, over and over. The one in the video allows eddy currents to form, decreasing efficiency.

[@DrRChandra]

You've still performed a useful part of the scientific process: documenting what DIDN'T work. It shows people what is unlikely to work and why.

[@RoadRunnerMeep]

Learned more from your channel than I did through my entire school years

[@whiteboy98100]

The experiment wasn’t a failure the expectations of your hypothesis were high but you leaned something so in the end a successful experiment.

[@KingSlimjeezy]

I'm sure it's been said but you'd be da MVP of any crew in a post apocolyptic scenario. And very interesting project as usual

[@ryanmickelwait1521]

This is a cool thing to print. It makes 3d printed machines cooler and cheaper.

[@funny-video-YouTube-channel]

OK, printing motors in plastic is not working out. *How about printing slow speed fans ?*

[@crashbuilds]

I really need to take your example and be brave enough to post fails, I've had about three in the last two weeks and haven't released a single video because of it!

[@ibims2353]

Simson is life, Simson is love :) wäre nice deine Simme mal zu sehen

[@sanjayprasad2496]

In order to increase the magnetic flux you'll have to add material with a high magnetic permeance , even magnetic materials like my n52 magnets have very less permeance of over 1.5 , whereas pure iron has over 200,000 and silicon steel or the electrical steel alloy used for motor construction has over 20,000 . These figures are available in Wikipedia . All in all an awesome attempt to make the motor , I too am trying to build a motor . thanks for sharing . : )

[@mupschiplayz1802]

Our german engineer is back woth another awseome video!

[@GM-hr8fb]

First of all thanks for the great video, you're awesome. By the way I think that the reason is the air gaps that result from the 3D printing and the magnetic properties of the PLA mateiral. To illustrate, power transformers have laminated steel sheets but virtually no air gaps, thereby reducing eddy or leakage currents and increasing the magnetic properties. However, future and other hi-tech 3D printing technologies are reducing these air gaps, so the idea is very valid!

[@Stoney3K]

"Ferromagnetic" material is not what you want in a motor stator since it does not conduct magnetic flux very well, but instead, generates a field on its own like a permanent magnet. Ideally, you want something made out of ferrous metal which is sandwiched in between electrical insulators (this is what limits the eddy currents). An option would be to use laser or waterjet cut thin pieces of steel and insulating sheets in between. The high inductance of the regular BLDC motor already gives you an idea of the Kt (torque per amps) value of the motor which is a lot lower if you don't use flux conducting material. Low torque doesn't directly mean low power, but you would have to gear down the motor to get the same amount of torque out of it.

[@emrekocamese3848]

Don't forget that motor cores are exposed to physical stress as the motor load increases. Being "laminated" plastic may be become a problem in larger operations like e-bike etc. By Newton's law, thoose magnets are actually pushing thoose windings in the opposite rotating way so they move. And windings are fixed to the rotor. There has to be a reaction force/moment on stationary parts which transfered to motor mounts via stator.

[@jsmythib]

1:20 was a literal ' GREAT SCOTT! ' moment :) iron pla

[@hhhbkid]

Oh man, I rewind polyphase AC stators for a living, I was grimacing when you melted that first 3D printed core, lol.

[@yuvalesroni1680]

If I am correct, the ferro-magnetic layers of the stator are laminated and insulated from one another, unlike the print layers which are fused together. The insulation according to a theory I've heard, increases the electric potential difference between the layers and make the magnetic flux stronger.

[@musabbafridi8721]

Hey mate. Would love to see design and test a wind turbine generator?

[@greatscottlab]

It is on my to do list

[@bugnugget2516]

Or a water jet @GreatScott!

[@americanengineering2063]

many youtubers have done this already and havnt gotten anymore than 2 or 3 volts from it. not enough to charge a phone x.X because they all used 3d printing instead of real metal plates in the generator

[@pinkysharma8884]

Failure is the key to success I am the one who never completed a project with inductor or transformers but see I am still finding a way to it !!! Help me in any way if you can

[@owaisfarooqui6485]

to calculate the efficiency (or say power) you can directly use formula....... because you have all the parameters.....RPM and torque. it is enough for calculating efficiency. check torque RPM and power relationship

[@NicolaGuerrera]

I love this videos about BLDC motors!

[@August301989]

You may want to try to 3d print the rotor again as sheets. Only problem how to laminate. Mmmm nice work though

[@satibel]

Using a dual extruder and printing alternating magnetic and non magnetic layers maybe?

[@August301989]

@@satibel ya that would do the trick. It would increase its magnetic flux density a few more times and reduce the losses.

[@Johennessy]

I love that u did that... i never got the time for that and so wanted to do it... and u answered a lot of my questions.... thx man

[@mintudoku9375]

Great scott is one my anothr best channel

[@electronic7979]

Very Excellent project 👍

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic work, dude!!! 😮 It's pretty awesome they worked at all!!!

[@educatedmanholecoverbyrich8890]

Magic. Keep up the good work.

[@helmutzollner5496]

Not sure, but one if the sponsored makes mentioned that JLCPCB now offers sheet metal parts as well as PCBs. They should be able to laser cut a stack of iron sheets to give you a decent stator. Apparently you can upload the design for the Sheet metal like a PCB design. Havent tried it, but might be worth investigating.

[@peppem94marsala]

propeller have an ideal speed, out of this speed its efficency decreases very soon

[@plinioferreira4255]

I was looking for this comment. In fact that experiment is not ideal to test these motors. Maybe using a balance dynamo for the torque? Great videos Great Scott, love your explanations and electronics setups.

[@xanamata5386]

i bet greatscott(!) will end up to become a carpenter .

[@GatoRockYou]

Nice try! I tried something similar as your wood experiment, making a zeppelin with Helium and 2 helix, the decisive point was to know how much force the helix can do. For that i used a bascule weighing all the machine with the helix motor turned off, and then turned on, for sure, before using any helium. In my case all the machine was 110 g with the motor turned off, 100g turned on in positive direction, and 118g in negative current. Thanks for your videos! :)

[@Endermanso]

You can dismount a big trsnsformer and cnc the plates for your motor (aka a lot of work)

[@zedx7797]

I hope you stay tuned to the project. I drive a Simson myself and I am very excited about the idea.

[@wcemichael]

You can water etch as many steel plates as you need and stack them to create any rotor you want

[@mofasa2]

You live and learn Scotty!

[@BrainSlugs83]

Yes! -- Cool project! -- On a different note -- I think being able to 3D print motors for 3D printers would be pretty awesome -- they don't technically have to be stepper motors -- if you can work in an encoder wheel (which could just be holes or bumps at regular intervals) you can implement a closed loop system -- makes the software more complicated, but it is more reliable than steppers for 3D printing anyway...

[@BrainSlugs83]

Also wondering... with conductive filament, and a multi-extruder system... could you just print the windings on the stator...? Like thousands of really tiny ones....? -- I think that would give a high rpm that you could just gear down, right? -- Maybe bake in a fan on one end to help cool the motor... (I think some BLDCs have that, no?)

[@BrainSlugs83]

Also, with your failed propeller experiment, you weren't factoring in the weight of each motor (e.g. they didn't all weigh the same amount, so the same amount of thrust energy would make each motor rise to different heights)...

[@user-dl6iy7rd2y]

dude what a coincidence I was watching the 3d printed video this morning !

[@fhuber7507]

Its possible, but needs to be power limited to prevent overheat. What should be done is to have the core laser cut from steel sheet. (which isn't as hard to get as you seem to indicate) Also a tight fit steel tube for pressing into the brake hub then mount the magnets on that. These would tremendously improve the motor efficiency, even though you have less room for copper windings.

[@teemune]

If you were able to generate any lift, you could just turn the test setup around, so that gravity adds to the force. Or you could lose the pillar and leave it hanging by the force gauge.

[@kencover2040]

Great video as always man! Have a happy holiday!

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks, you too.

[@abhyu1112]

U can use stator from motorcycle dynamo which are made quite well ....u need to find correct size one you have to do some research after finding it you can rewind it according to your project...

[@topsecret1837]

The fact you got it spinning means that it can be used as a electric bicycle motor. As it has better torque than the PLA motor and higher rpm than Steel motor gives it unique qualities.

[@justthomasrussell448]

Keep going with this project it’s amazing

[@greatscottlab]

Thanks

[@jamess1787]

1 million, here we come!!!

[@naitikshailendrakumaryadav2824]

Stay creative and see you next time

[@schadow0298]

Das Gute alte Simson Rad xD👌🏻

[@johnissa5268]

you could use those plasma cutter tables that cut custom pieces of metal of any thickness you want. i've seen them on the hacksmith and collinfurze

[@noname_atall]

since the previous video, i was looking to your winding arrangement and i think it is "wrong". and by the quotes i mean it works, and it is what is supposed to be, but don't look ideal. by reading the diagram, i see that the multiple windings of each phase are wired in series, and in a quadrupole configuration. this means that if we take the windings of one phase (say, A), feed an arbitrary (DC) current and measure the poles with a compass, all poles where the phase A windings are will show the same polarity, say, north. and as they are two pairs opposite to each other, they form a quadrupole, with the south pole, as measured by a compass, being somewhere perpendicular to them, between the B and C winding poles. But concentrated and strong poles of one type and weak opposite poles don't make much sense. ideally fro a quadrupole configuration, the phase A poles should be four non adjacent pole forming a cross, with two of them forming an opposite pair with both having their north pole to the outside (while using the arbitrary DC source given above), and the other pair also being an opposite pair with the south pole facing outward. like this: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/VFPt_quadrupole_coils_1.svg/2000px-VFPt_quadrupole_coils_1.svg.png

[@kennywalterdiolola2290]

Good luck with you subs sir, you're about to reach 1M subs. Congrats 😉

[@sarmadrafique4472]

See you next time Scott!

[@Luisbalera]

Fantastic experiment! 👏

[@jhsimoiv]

Really great video. I was thinking about pursuing something similar. This gives me a good place to start.

[@MypersonalURL]

Thanks alot for all the vast knowledge.

[@Cadwaladr]

if you get a bunch of those little rectangular anti-theft tags that are on everything these days, you can take out the tiny sheets of amorphous steel from them and laminate them together to make a stator. Impractical, yes, but it'd be fun to watch.

[@r0gu3Sch0lar]

Wow I cant believe something I made was used in a Great Scott video!

[@greatscottlab]

I have to thank you for the script.

[@r0gu3Sch0lar]

@@greatscottlab My pleasure, I'd completely forgotten about it till I saw your video. Love your stuff!

[@policarporeyesjr7074]

that's is fine its part of test. you just forget the element of the unit is not compatible because plastic have a higher resistant that block the magnetic wave to make higher rpm.

[@muhammadosama3358]

Also you could mix the filament with powerdered ferrite and then injection mold it.

[@bobcandothis]

Love that you used copper clad board to hammer in the bearing lol

[@Mirandorl]

Christoph Laimer uses his to fly drones, they are massively powerful. He uprated the thickness of the rotor so they dont break. Check out the vids where he tests them, scary powerful!