pager motor. Tiny pager/vibrator motors are readily available
on the surplus market (AllElectronics.com, goldmine-elec.com,
and ebay). These are normally used to vibrate cell phones, pag-
ers, tooothbrushes, etc. They have very little torque, but use
very little current – typically 25-40 milliamperes. Obtain the
smallest one you can find (mine was only 0.47 inches long!).
Begin by removing the eccentric weight from the motor shaft
– carefully! I’ve done this two ways: Either by clamping the
weight in a vise and punching the shaft out with the blade of
a small screwdriver, or by mounting a small (#73) drill bit in
reverse in a drill press and pushing the shaft out (1).
Next I chose to re-shape a Bachmann figure of a Minister into
an engineer leaning out a locomotive cab window (see fig-
ure 2). The motor will turn a block of .080 styrene about 0.30
inches square. Drill two holes: one to accommodate a press-fit
of your motor axle, and the other about a #67 drill to fit the
