Vacuum/Fisher Price Motor Question

[LatinDrummaBoy]

I'm doing some research on how to change the standard motor on a off-the-shelf vacuum to a Fisher-Price motor from the Kit-o-Parts. If anyone has done this and/or has information about it (how good it works, etc.), Team 3518 will apreciate this greatly!


Team 3518
Jose G.

[Bruceb]

We did this last year...sort of. We took the impellers from 2 shop vacs and stacked them so the ouput of the first one fed the input of the second one.
We powered them with 2 FP motors. You might get away with one this year as it is a lot more powerfull than last years. Don't know if it wll give you enough suck though. Do some trials with the vac plugged into the wall and see if you get enough. I tried this early on and didn't think it would give us enough control and the game piece was easily knocked off. Hope it works out for ya. Would be cool to see.
Bruce

[artdutra04]

We played around with attaching FP motors to vacuums last year. The FP motor has the exact same mounting holes as the stock vacuum motor; the only part we had to make was a custom shaft connector to connect the FP motor shaft to the impeller. Here's some photos:

[LatinDrummaBoy]

Which Vacuum brand did you use? And also would any off the shelf vacuum work with the motor?

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by LatinDrummaBoy

Which Vacuum brand did you use? And also would any off the shelf vacuum work with the motor?

They were $20 Husky vacuum cleaners on sale at Home Depot.