One of the most useful items I have ever gotten as a gift is my new digital microscope. I can take pictures and video, I can zoom in hundreds of times farther than the human eye, it has eight super-bright LEDs to illuminate the object being viewed.

Call me paranoid, but I’m always afraid that the LEDs will burn out, a thought I can’t bear. Of course, I still turn them on when I’m showing off my microscope to friends, but when I’m doing my own work, I tend to turn on other lights to save the LEDs. One of my more powerful lights is attached to a mini solar show. When light hits the solar panel a motor turns a bunch of little airplanes. I decided to put it to use.

I took off the bottom cover with a common screwdriver to find its insides. Simpler than I imagined, the wires were neatly connected with plastic covers. Very convenient, its like I was expected to dissect it.

Making sure it was unplugged, I unscrewed the panel that covered the motor.

Under it sat the unsuspecting motor, ready to be taken apart.

I took off all the little metal prongs, which was actually tedious work because of how they were fastened.

I unscrewed the bulb so it wouldn’t get damaged, and decided how to cleanly separate it from the rest of the body.

I whipped out my dremel tool, and put on some goggles and a simple respirator for protection. The cutting took no more than a couple seconds and I used a metal gripping tool to hold it so my fingers would be in no danger.

I cut through the short plastic tube I was left with. I now had a bulb that I could easily use with my microscope freely!

In addition, I now have a solar panel and a motor to use. This project was well worth it.

Coming soon: The Science, Mathematics, and Future of Flight: Exploring Flight Theory.