DC Motors

Jon Slaughter · 2007-05-27T23:52:19+00:00

Does anyone know what kinda motors that most drills use? I was thinking it was a torque motor but not sure.Also, for DC motors can I get away with changing the voltage to a lower setting to increase the torque or do I run a huge risk of burning up the motor?(i.e., are they usually designed for a very narrow operating voltage). I have this old broken 18v drill and I want to turn it into opening a gate. I figure that it has enough torque to do it and I can control the speed quite easily. I plan on using some gears so I can open and close it with a change of polarity. I'm a little worried that it might have to much torque or that it might be to fast/slow for the gate(which the gears have a lot to do with of course).Just wondering how much I can play around with the voltage to get what I want if I need too. Also, I assume that P is pretty much constant for motors? i.e., if the rated power for a drill is P then P = I*V for a large range of I and V? So if I know its a "100w" drill at 20V then I can calculate the current at 15 voltages = 100/20 A = 5A and it should be approximately what the drill will pull? (obviously the load has a lot to do with it but just curious as to some simple approximation)Thanks,Jon