Looking for shaker motor suggestions (for non-pinball application)

[Mysterioii]

Hey guys, hoping someone here can give me some suggestions. I'm planning out a Halloween display (if I have the free time to bring it to fruition) and one thing I'd like to do is hook up some shaker motors to rustle/shake some branches... Just doing some quick searches what I'm seeing on ebay are $260 Stern kits or weak little pager motors and "personal massager" motors.     I need something beefier than the little guys but $260 is way out of my price range.  Hoping for something more in the $20 ballpark. I know really any moderate-sized DC motor with an offset weight would be workable for what I want to do.  Not sure where to get offset weights by themselves, so I'm considering just finding a motor and trying to make my own offset weight. Sounds simple enough, but I want to make sure that it's durable enough that the weight doesn't go flying off on it's own.

Any thoughts? Anyone have any sources for used-but-workable shaker motors, or have any experience making your own?

Thanks!

[lilshawn]

still a little pricey but:


http://www.magicfingers.com/


vibrating bed?

[Mysterioii]

Haha I guess that's a possibility but it's probably still overkill...  I could probably get any reasonably sized DC motor in the 12V range and put some sort of offset weight on there, I just want to make sure it's sturdy.  I could cast a weight out of lead (old solder probably) but I'd need to embed some sort of fastener to grip the shaft since I doubt the lead by itself would hold up...

[BadMouth]

Hit up harbor freight for a cheap reciprocating saw (don't forget the 20% coupon from the sunday paper  ).
Attach a weight to the end, or stretch a rope between the branches and the saw.

[Mysterioii]

Not a bad idea either... my recip saw is pretty noisy though and I'm hoping for something that will do it's job pretty quietly...  I'm thinking a DC motor with an offset weight might be relatively quiet but come to think of it I might be deluding myself...  The Electronic Goldmine carries several variations of DC motors, I might pick a few up and experiment.  (They're not exactly a digikey or mouser, but for random little surplus bits for pretty cheap they're not bad).

[dgame]

Get some cheap portable/car fans and cut/break off one of the fan blades on each.
Then you get vibration and some breeze to shake the leaves.

Something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/190714383930 or http://www.ebay.com/itm/380462595583

[PL1]

Maybe a cordless drill motor would be better?  jumper the trigger switch to your trigger system. (remote switch, pressure plate, motion sensor and relay, etc.)  A sound deadening box might help.

Grind flats on the shaft for the weight to reduce odds of slippage.

Maybe a piece of bent rebar?


Scott

[Mysterioii]

Get some cheap portable/car fans and cut/break off one of the fan blades on each.
Then you get vibration and some breeze to shake the leaves.

Something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/190714383930 or http://www.ebay.com/itm/380462595583

Not a bad idea, I thought about maybe doing the same sort of thing to a PC fan....  I have a couple of dead PCs lying around, ready to give up their parts...

[Mysterioii]

Maybe a cordless drill motor would be better?  jumper the trigger switch to your trigger system. (remote switch, pressure plate, motion sensor and relay, etc.)  A sound deadening box might help.

Grind flats on the shaft for the weight to reduce odds of slippage.

Maybe a piece of bent rebar?


Scorr

Also worth a shot... I think I have a spare 12VDC cordless drill from many years ago... unless I donated it at some point...  Not sure it put out the speed needed to really whip up a good shaking...   But I think I have some experimenting to do.   

I'll share another thought of mine....  I'm planning to use a few cheap surplus pager motors, and put a blob of thermoplastic over the weights...  I have some of that "friendly plastic" thermoplastic that gets soft in boiling water.  While it's still soft I plan to pinch it and draw it into a filament maybe 4-5" long sticking off to the side .  Toss a few into some loose leaves and drive them by a microcontroller...  I hope to use the small motors rustling the leaves to give the impression of "small things".... followed by the shaking of the branches to give the impression of "big things"...   

[lilshawn]

Strip a motor out of a dishwasher on the side of the road, mount a grinding wheel to the shaft, and break off a chunk of the grinding wheel?

I've made shaker motors accidentally with the above process.

That...


I'm...


I...don't know what I expected.