[Lou] is on a hot streak when it comes to interesting builds. This time around he made his own motor using wood, PVC, some fasteners, and a bunch of enameled wire.
His method of building a commutator is intriguing. He first builds a rotor by cutting two opposing sides off of a PVC four-way connector and pushing a short galvanized pipe through what’s left. After adding two PVC nubs with caps and nails as pivot points he wraps the PVC and metal pipe with a continuous length of enameled wire. The enamel is then sanded off the windings around the PVC, and half is covered with electrical tape. The spinning rotor will cause the brushes to contact the bare wire during half of the rotation, and be insulated by the tape during the other half. The video after the break shows the motor in action, then walks you through each step of the build.