Motorized lazy susan?
Does anyone have any ideas for how to motorize a lazy susan? I bought two from Ikea, and would like to somehow rig it so that it will rotate slowly to display my sculptures.
Preferable features:
-the motor, energy source and other stuff either hidden or hideable (in a box? off to the side?)
Nice-to-haves, but not necessities:
-adjustable speed
-rotate in either direction
The top is 15" in diameter and the bottom portion is 7".
The last image is my attempt to show the internal mechanism with a flashlight.
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Sep 22, 2011. 6:28 PMwhisperonthewind
says:
go to scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com (or something along that line). Steve Good made one using an ordinary (ticking type) kitchen timer. Twist one way to start it, and then it rotates in the other direction. Slow, but it works. No electricity or batteries. He uses it to dry crafts in front of a fan.
Rip apart an old scanner, that'll give you a good set of gears and motor, plus a power supply, they already have a set of gears that gear down a lot to make the carriage move slow enough, then you can do the final adjustment using different sizes of drive wheel, think rubber wheel directly to the bottom of the lazy Susan, the whole thing comes on a mounted plate and would probably be low profile enough to fit underneath with the smallest of modifications...
Aug 31, 2008. 3:34 PMFirebert010
says:
The electronic goldmine has a decent selection of nice DC motors. You'd need some serious gears to get a slower speed, however.
A belt could be run from a gear to the Susan somehow. To make it reversable, you'd need to wire an h-bridge. It's not horribly difficult, but you'd have to go out of your way to do it. Add on a variable resistor and you've got speed control.
A nice housing could be built out of the way.
A belt could be run from a gear to the Susan somehow. To make it reversable, you'd need to wire an h-bridge. It's not horribly difficult, but you'd have to go out of your way to do it. Add on a variable resistor and you've got speed control.
A nice housing could be built out of the way.
I was just at ikea and had the same idea - I'm thinking a small dc geared motor that reduces the revs down to something manageable, and mounting the motor with a driving wheel on the underside of the upper platter. to achieve variable speed simply make the motor mount so it can move radially (so the drive either hits closer to the axis of rotation, or further). This would change the circumference/revolution thus changing the speed.
Aug 27, 2008. 12:42 PMChicken2209
says:
also if you want to keep it simple, you can try to hook it up to a clock motor's sec hand, so it will turn clockwise and make a revolution every 60 secs.
Adjustable speeds are easiest if the motor is a small DC powered one. Then you just need a rheostat as speed control. Making it "reverse direction" would again be easiest with the DC motor. Unless you are up to making a gear box, that would reverse the Lazy Suzan without reversing the motor direction :-) Some small DC motors reverse just by reversing the polarity of the power source. You should be able to have everything except the motor off to the side. However, a geared down motor could be "off to the side" if the drive portion is extended to the L. S. in order to turn it. A rubber wheel might suffice as it loods well made and the ball bearings look as though they would help it turn nearly effortlessly.
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