Your questions don't add up.

I can turn a high torque anything with my finger if the knob is big and
light enough.  In other words, the force you apply with your finger
translates to torque through a lever.  If you have a small diameter
shaft on your low torque pot, then your finger may have to apply a great
deal of force to turn it, if you attach a 1 foot stick to it then your
finger will have to apply very little force to the end of the stick.

The fan blade is the same way.  You'll apply less force at the ends of
the blades then you'll apply at or near the center.

The trade off is distance moved.  At the center you only need to move it
a little to get a large degree of rotation, whereas at the outside you
need to move it further.  Force * Distance = Work, the work is the same
whether you turn it a the center or the end, but the distance and force
changes.

If you knew the torque you needed (ie, .01 foot pound or some other
absolute torque measurement) then we could help you more easily.

Since, however, you seem to be asking for a relative measurement (fans
have widely varying torques) then you need to give a little more
information:

What will be turning the pot?
Will it turn the pot directly, or is there a
knob/attachment/lever/belt/pulley/etc on the pot?
How much force is going to be applied to the point at which they (the
pot and the other object) meet?
Are you also going to be dealing with friction/slipping?

By the way, a normal desktop fan requires a lot more torque to turn than
any small pot I've ever dealt with.  Take the fan blades off the shaft
for a better torqure comparison.  Better yet, put the fan blades on the pot.

I hope this helps!

-Adam

Pang wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>Just received a sample for a low torque potentiometer. As i checked it, I
>found that it is not suitable for my application. The torque is not low
>enough eventhough the potentiometer is classified as low torque. As such I
>would like to enquire, what is the estimated torque such that I can turn the
>shaft of a potentiometer using only one finger? Or maybe in another way...
>what is the torque for a normal desktop fan? Is such a potentiometer (with
>that level of torque) available?
>
>Thanks..
>
>Best rgds,
>Pang
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics
>(like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics
(like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics