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Be a Scientist: Build an Electrostatic Motor

by Kiteman on January 12, 2006

Table of Contents

intro: Be a Scientist: Build an Electrostatic Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

step 1: Gather your materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

step 2: Making the Rotor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

step 3: Making the Base and Adding the Rotor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

step 4: Making the Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

step 5: Running the Motor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

step 6: How it Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/
intro: Be a Scientist: Build an Electrostatic Motor
Normal motors are driven by electromagnetic forces. This motor needs no batteries, mains supply or solar cells. Electrostatic motors are turned by the kind of electricity
generated by wearing nylon clothes in a modern office. Think of it as gigantic nano-technology as well, because this is how the microscopic motors of nanobots work.

Video

step 1: Gather your materials.

For the basic motor, you need a disposable plastic drinking cup, aluminium foil, glue-stick, bamboo or dowel (at least a centimetre or two longer than the cup is tall), wire
and a non-conducting base, such as a plastic plate or a wooden board.

Image Notes
1. This bamboo came from a broken roller blind.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/
step 2: Making the Rotor.
The spinning part of any motor is called the rotor (because it rotates).

Cut three pieces of foil. The exact dimensions for the basic motor are not important, but they need to be slightly shorter than the cup is tall, and of a width so that there is
a gap of about 1cm between the pieces when you stick them to the cup.

Stick the pieces of foil to the cup. Space them evenly around the cup, and make sure there is no point where neighbouring pieces touch each other.

(I say "three pieces of foil", but the exact number seems unimportant - maybe somebody would like to research this point - as long as it is two or more.)

Image Notes
1. There are at least seven pieces of foil on this slapped-together rotor, yet it
worked well.

step 3: Making the Base and Adding the Rotor.

Sharpen the bamboo or dowel to a reasonable point, and then use the blu-tac to stand it in the middle of the base-board. Balance the cup (upside-down) on the bamboo
so that it spins freely.

It is possible to sharpen the dowel with a pencil sharpener, or even use a sharp pencil instead of the dowel. Bamboo usually needs a sharp knife.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/
 Image Notes Image Notes
1. This base is an upside-down plastic drawer from my lab. 1. Note that the cup is clear of the base all round.

step 4: Making the Connections.

Cut two pieces of wire. They need to be long enough to reach your source of static electricity and your earth connection. If you are using balloons to generate the static,
give enough clear air between the balloon end of the wire and the motor to prevent draughts from the balloon knocking the cup off its perch.

Position the wires so they stand each side of the cup. They should be about 1cm from the cup (they MUST NOT touch the rotor), pointing at the cup. Fasten the wire in
place (how you do this depends on the nature of your base - blobs of blu-tac, drawing-pins, sticky tape, it does not really matter).

Your motor is now finished.

step 5: Running the Motor.

Connect one wire to connect to a good Earth point - any bare metal part of the home plumbing system is good. If all your water pipes are plastic, poke the wire into th
cold-water tap and let it trickle slowly. For your own safety, do not connect the motor to any part of your mains electrical supply.

Now you need a source of static electricity:

If you are lucky enough to own a Van der Graff generator (or you have made your own!), that would be perfect. The earth wire can be connected to the bottom dome of
the generator. Otherwise, anything that generates static will do. Inflate a long balloon, rub it on your sweater, and then gently stroke its length down the end of the wire
not connected to the Earth. Repeat. Gather several friends, also with balloons, and take turns to add charge to the machine. Lay a sheet of aluminium foil over the screen
of a TV or monitor that crackles a lot when you switch it on and off, and use wire to connect the foil to your motor. The more static you can supply, the faster your motor
will run. We ran six motors simultaneously from my Van der Graff generator.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/
 step 6: How it Works.
As you add charge to the unconnected end of the machine, it is transferred to the piece of foil nearest to you, giving it the same charge as the balloons. Like charges
repel, so the foil is pushed away from the wire. This turns the rotor.

When the rotor turns, it brings the next piece of foil to collect charge, and also moves the first piece towards the earth connection to discharge. The whole process
repeats for as long as you supply charge to the motor. The only real limiters to the speed are balance - wobbly rotors will turn more slowly - and friction. The top speed of
your motor will be controlled by friction on the balance point (so make it small and slippery, but don't use grease, try graphite) and by air friction on the cup (so try not to
have too many wrinkles or loose edges).

Related Instructables

Kelvin's
Build an Thunderstorm - How to modify a
Electrostatic Mini Van De servo motor for
Create lightning Graaf... M & M
Motor by John Make A Water 120,000 Volt The mini continuous My Tesla's
from water and
Leyden Jar by Van De Graaff style! by electrostatic rotation ( One radiant energy
Chase gravity! by NK5
Plasmana Generator by mcraghead generator by motor walker collector (open
Tool Using funky alex robot ) by project) by
Animal robomaniac alessiof76

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Comments
50 comments Add Comment

rexxxar says: Jul 22, 2009. 1:17 PM REPLY

Its great but i have a question, can i make this with something other than a cup? because right now this is only for show and i want to use the static motor.

Kiteman says: Jul 22, 2009. 1:21 PM REPLY

On this scale, the motor is useless for anything other than show. It has absolutely no torque, and even running at full speed it can be stopped with a
feather-light touch.

To be useful, this needs scaled down - most useful electrostatic motors run at the nano-scale, driving machinery on micro-chips.

rexxxar says: Jul 26, 2009. 11:19 AM REPLY

ok thanks :[

robo_bob says: Jun 29, 2009. 4:08 PM REPLY

can you use likea 9 volt

Kiteman says: Jun 30, 2009. 11:17 AM REPLY

No, you need high voltage - hundreds, preferably thousands.

JOEDUPONT says: Jan 18, 2008. 9:48 PM REPLY

try running it from a kite with a long wire.. and no
electrical wires around..

crockman1 says: Jun 23, 2009. 9:07 AM REPLY

try putting a layer of aluminium foil on the top of the kite, make sure the kite is made from an insulating material. you can also use balloons to hoist the
wire. the higher the kite is the better. Tesla calls this his free energy machine i think.

Derin says: May 30, 2009. 1:32 AM REPLY

Oh no............
1.21

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/
 slipknot rules says: Mar 14, 2009. 4:16 PM REPLY
try connecting it to a flyback transformer

tesla coil says: Apr 30, 2009. 6:53 AM REPLY

that would work real nice

slipknot rules says: May 16, 2009. 2:12 PM REPLY

or if u connected a 'fly zapper' circuit to the flyback with a spark gap, that produces high voltage, but not enough current to kill you...about 20,000v at
4 or so mA.

Seifpic says: Feb 19, 2009. 8:42 AM REPLY

Thing like that never work for me...

skatepark13 says: Jan 31, 2009. 4:04 PM REPLY

thanks for the help very neat

Kiteman says: Feb 1, 2009. 12:42 PM REPLY

You're welcome.

JOEDUPONT says: Jan 18, 2008. 9:47 PM REPLY

have you added plates to the wires and put the
up close to the spinning device?

Kiteman says: Jan 19, 2008. 5:39 AM REPLY

No, they're just bare wires pointing at the foil on the cup - static charge jumps best from points than plates.

chriskarr says: Nov 28, 2008. 6:32 PM REPLY

Any electricity does for that matter. It's quite perturbing when making Tesla coils, because all of the high-voltage electricity shoots off into the air from
any imperfection in your secondary coil or your top load.

cowscankill says: Nov 20, 2008. 10:41 AM REPLY

Cool, and I understood everything up to the static generating part. Where do the two wires lead? Where do I put my static generator?

cowscankill says: Nov 20, 2008. 10:43 AM REPLY

OH. I just rerereread. Why are the wires not touching the cup?

cowscankill says: Nov 20, 2008. 10:44 AM REPLY

LOL nvm! I'm going to try this when I get home. Can I run this off of a home made capacitor? or because it is an electrostatic motor it can't run off of
dc power?

Kiteman says: Nov 20, 2008. 11:09 AM REPLY

Correct - it needs high voltage, not high current. You can run it off your TV / CRT screen, though.

cowscankill says: Nov 21, 2008. 10:34 AM REPLY

So the question for me is how can I make a portable static generater? I don't want to carry my pipe with me everywhere...

Kiteman says: Nov 21, 2008. 10:51 AM REPLY

There are a few Instructables for battery-powered Van Der Graaf generators (although the spelling is somewhat negotiable).

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/
 NineInchNachos says: Jan 13, 2006. 12:30 PM REPLY
This looks like a fun project. Can't wait to try it out; Thanks for the post!

Kiteman says: Jan 13, 2006. 1:21 PM REPLY

A pleasure. I'm trying to work out how to attach a video of it running.

theburn7 says: Jun 13, 2008. 11:27 AM REPLY

WOW i am replying on kiteman's first comment, i feel with great gratitude

I Like It says: Jun 12, 2008. 9:40 PM REPLY

Kites first comment?

GorillazMiko says: Jun 12, 2008. 9:20 PM REPLY

Kiteman's first comment...

turner22 says: May 14, 2008. 3:24 PM REPLY

what is an earth point?

freakmonkey says: May 16, 2008. 12:21 PM REPLY

In the US it's usually called a grounding point or simply a ground.

Kiteman says: May 14, 2008. 3:30 PM REPLY

Anywhere you can connect the wire to allow charge to drain away. Good earth points are radiators and cold-water taps, as the pipes are connected to,
well, the ground.

If you have a three-pin mains power supply (like the UK), the middle pin is a very good earth as well, but only use that if you really know what you're
doing.

I have found that gas pipes make good earth points as well (after accidentally earthing myself via my lab's gas taps a couple of times), but the
combination of flammable gas and electrical sparks makes me too nervous to use it deliberately.

wiiman8 says: Feb 27, 2008. 6:56 PM REPLY

I tried this and it worked for a while then got a little off center and stopped. Now it doesn't seem to want to work again. Is there a way besides t.v.'s to get
static because after a few times the static stops being produced...

Kiteman says: Feb 28, 2008. 3:43 AM REPLY

I used a Van der Graaf generator, but they're supposed to work off balloons as well.

It's important to make sure that the side of the motor away from your source of charge is well-grounded to let the charge flow away - connect a wire to
the bare metal of your plumbing, say a tap or radiator.

wiiman8 says: Feb 28, 2008. 9:37 AM REPLY

O.k. I might try making one of the generators off this site. A few times to ground it I put the end the ground socket of a wall socket will this work o.k. or
should I use something else?

Kiteman says: Feb 28, 2008. 12:05 PM REPLY

Ground socket is good, as long as you get the right pin...

wiiman8 says: Feb 28, 2008. 5:59 PM REPLY

Lol yea if I got the wrong one I don't think I would even be on this instructable, I would have given up.

kalikot says: May 19, 2007. 1:18 AM REPLY

it'll be better if you have the video to show that this actually spin :)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/
 Woo Doo Doo says: Oct 6, 2007. 4:48 PM REPLY
he did first page

Kiteman says: Oct 7, 2007. 4:18 AM REPLY

When Kalikot posted this comment. I hadn't added a video (see my reply dated May 19)

Kiteman says: May 19, 2007. 2:31 PM REPLY

I knew there was something I forgot! I couldn't get it to upload when I first posted the Instructable, and I didn't have a YouTube account.

Now, I do.

instructa-fan says: Mar 18, 2007. 1:00 AM REPLY

I covered the front of my T.V. in foil like you said and when I turned it on it made a loud CRACK then turne off and repeated the cycle until I mustered up the
courage to unplug the T.V. Now the picture is red. :'(

cactus1 says: Feb 24, 2007. 9:41 AM REPLY

Couldn't you stick the aluminum foil on the insdie of the cup and allow the wires to touch the cup?

Kiteman says: Feb 24, 2007. 3:01 PM REPLY

The insulation of the cup would prevent charge reaching the foil, and the friction of the contact (however small) would stop the cup spinning - these things
have almost no torque.

xbeanx says: Dec 29, 2006. 10:25 PM REPLY

Do you think it's possible to build a motor with this concept to use in a electric scooter?

Kiteman says: Jan 2, 2007. 4:02 PM REPLY

Sorry, that won't work - these are high speed motors, but have almost zero torque. They are only really useful at the nano-scale, driving tiny pumps and
motors on microchip-sized machinery.

Maybe you know somebody who can etch a microscopic scooter onto a chip for you...?

shadowman2 says: Dec 17, 2006. 7:39 AM REPLY

Oh, thanks.

shadowman2 says: Dec 16, 2006. 8:24 PM REPLY

Can you use a supercap ?

Kiteman says: Dec 17, 2006. 4:35 AM REPLY

Not really - it's the high voltage (repulsion of like charges) that drives the motor, not current (electromagnetic forces).

wjbeaty says: Jan 13, 2006. 6:36 PM REPLY

Don't forget the orginal 1974 article on these, from CL Stong in Sci. American: http://f3wm.free.fr/sciences/jefimenko.html

Kiteman says: Jan 15, 2006. 3:03 PM REPLY

Gosh. Thanks for that link - possibly more projects there...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Be-a-Scientist%3a-Build-an-Electrostatic-Motor/