This was very much the case with older washing machines ... of the motor. The result is a mess of wires demystified, and a mains powered motor with a bit of strength for your projects.

Building a generator can be a fun and fairly simple project. Getting a large DC motor however can sometimes be difficult. Here is a writeup on how to make a generator from an old washing machine ...

Arduino library to control Whirlpool Duet washing machine ... Motor Control Unit (MCU P/N 8181693). An UART full-duplex to half-duplex adapter is required to connect Arduino hardware serial port to ...