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I made a sweet stir plate from an old computer that I had in the garage. The fan fits just perfectly inside an old Roku streaming device that I had. I made the slightly more complicated but electronically sound design that uses a voltage regulator,potentiometer,two capacitors and one resistor. I included an on-off switch and it has an input for the wall wart. The only thing I might change is the number of magnets on the fan. I harvested two from the hard drive. I might include a diode to protect against using the wrong polarity power source. It's wired with a positive tip and negative sleeve. I don't want to accidentally fry something by using the wrong wall wart.
It works very smoothly and the pot adjusts the fan speed gradually. I bought a 1 inch stir bar. It gets thrown if I'm not careful about how I get it spinning. There is a speed where it locks in and is very solidly in the magnetic field.
My daughter and I had fun watching the vortex and putting multi-colored fluids into it. It's like a science fair over here!
I used it to make some cold brewed coffee.
Its a fun project.
