Is an electric can opener an electromagnet?

Answer 1

Absolutely, there are multiple magnets with several copper coil rolls with metal weights that let it spin by being pushed with your houses 120.

Take that same motor, say you find a decent one that no longer works... Keep the plug and wire, the extra wire inside, the motor and everything attached to it as well as the blades (hope there's room for the last part) and a couple of 12V (NOT CHEAP OR TINY, VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE CCA ARE HIGH) batteries.

You can take it all apart and make an ACTUAL electromagnet and apply the right power to it to bring metal flying towards it, or do something special like making an object float in mid air with your DIY project and turn around and make some money off nothing but that motor, included power supply and whatever light object you choose.

Maybe a 3D printed lithophane (cube, sphere etc. whatever you choose and have it slowly (or quickly) spin while hovering in mid air)!

That part depends on the strength of the copper coils, grade of copper (use grade 1 obviously), strength of the magnets (rare earth are very strong and more expensive because of it) and with about 30 minutes work and assuming you have a broken (or not, if you don't mind breaking one) can opener, then in 30 minutes you will be done.

Lithophanes and globes/planets/moon are all very popular and you can make a ton of money off of them or just make great gifts. Google LITHOPHANE if you haven't seen them. People online charge $400 for something you can do for $40 or less, potentially $5 if you already have extra pieces of 5V (or 12V, but it's more expensive and complex) power supplies, you shouldn't use them with just direct power, which is where a good can opener comes in, it's still regulated. If it's something small, you don't need anything extra at all really...

You didn't ask about that part and it's been awhile since it was asked, but I thought I would share something you could do with them!

So something like this is very basic, now imagine it being something cooler, like a bunch of pictures lit up and spinning.

It will only attach one image, so I'm going to go with this one, the rights aren't mine, but they are attached to the image. This is something very basic that you can do with these magnets though!