Introduction: Awesome Easy Turntable to Show Off Your Projects

By Fungineers
About: Watch this space for projects on science, engineering, and tech. I explain how and why things work, by breaking apart everyday objects and DIY-ing the heck out of them.

On my YouTube Channel, I do some products' reviews too, so I always wanted to make a nice turntable to show off new products.
Like all things I do, i wanted to make it as simple as possible. So only 3 components were used. Follow along, and let's get building.

Oh, if you want a further breakdown of step by step instructions, here's the complete video:

Step 1: Design (but Before That..)

First step: Design? Wrong - First step: IDEA!

I had an idea to build a simple rotating table, so using Tinkercad (Best software for designing simple Tools and shapes), I designed a simple round (16cm diameter) table, with a simple motor housing (make sure its centered), and a battery holder.

Let's go turn this into a reality!

Step 2: 3D Print + Prime + Paint

The base was 3D Printed, using my cheap $150 3D printer, that you can check out here.

After printing (took about 4 hours), i primed it using Bondo, and did a bit of light sanding.
After that, some black spray paint was used to give it 3 - 4 layers of paint, with about 10-15 minutes between each coat.

Step 3: The Top - Not 3D Printed

I initially thought of 3D Printing the Top, but a friend gave me the idea of using a glass/ acrylic top. I used acrylic (Got it done at a Sign-shop for $10), and it was the best decision ever!

It looked super glossy and gave the whole thing a professional, production look!

Now on to electronics...

Step 4: The Electronics

I wanted to keep the electronics as simple as possible.

The schematics are simple, we need:

  • A motor
  • A Switch
  • A Potentiometer
  • Some wires
  • 2 1.5V AA Batteries

I had a big motor from an old air freshene (normal toy car motors dont have enought torque to take the weight of the acrylic top AND rotate), A potentiometer (100ohm), and a swtich (from a toy) were soldered as shown in the schematic, and hotglued in place.

Our turntable is ready!

Step 5: Final Steps and Tips!

It;s very tricky to place the top lid exactly in the center, and to get perfectly round rotation. I plan to build additional supports in the future to improve this model and ensure a smoother rotation.

Thanks for liking this project, if you like more stuff like this, I've got tons of it on the Fungineers YouTube Channel.

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