How to put motors on drawer slides

Thread Starter

TheGuyMain

Joined Jun 28, 2021
21
I want to make a linear actuator out of drawer slides so I can lift my monitor up and down. The drawer slides will be screwed into the frame of the monitor either on the side of the frame or the back of the frame. I picked drawer slides because they seem compact, affordable, and easy to use. I'm sure there's a way to put motors on them in a similar fashion to a rigid belt or rigid chain actuator but I'm not sure how to do this. I need help with 1. design (where to put motors, what kind of slides work with what kind of motors) 2. finding the right motors that are strong enough to lift the monitor. The monitor weighs just over 2 oz (it's very light lol)
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
I’d suggest an automobile power window motor.

You could rig cables and pulleys to lift the monitor. This might be the best solution, as the cabling could use just one motor.

Another method, supplied to get the creative juices flowing, is a rack and pinion system. The rack would attach to the drawer slides. The pinion would mount on the motors.
 

Thread Starter

TheGuyMain

Joined Jun 28, 2021
21
I’d suggest an automobile power window motor.

You could rig cables and pulleys to lift the monitor. This might be the best solution, as the cabling could use just one motor.

Another method, supplied to get the creative juices flowing, is a rack and pinion system. The rack would attach to the drawer slides. The pinion would mount on the motors.
I was kind of thinking of a rack and pinion system, mostly because I don't think gear boxes are as compact. Thank you for your suggestions. Now I know which motor I need and which method I should use :)
 

Thread Starter

TheGuyMain

Joined Jun 28, 2021
21
Another cheap source/automotive wrecker, is the geared seat motors, I picked up some new/surplus for a few $$'s.
Thank you for your suggestion but what exactly is a geared seat motor? Is that the motors they use for car seats? Where do I buy those for cheap because when I looked up geared seat motors, all the search results were around $100
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
Like I said, if you have an auto wrecker near you, that is one source, mine were new from a local (Canadian) surplus parts store,
$12.0 ,new!
 

Wolframore

Joined Jan 21, 2019
2,609
Here are a couple more ideas:
belt drive with the toothed belt
screw drive.
You can drive it with end stops (cherry switch, optical... etc) or program the numbers of steps using stepper Motors.
 
Let me ask how much distance do you have to move?

4" or 19" and the second question is in how much time?

How easy is it to place limit switches on the mechanism?

Usually limit switches won;t fail on you and there are fixes like a slip clutch?

Rack and pinion is easy
Hurst AC synchronous are nice. They can be gotten un very low RPM. You can control speed with an easy to build variable frequency drive.
Ladder chain.
Bead chain.
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,069
The proposed solution will work, but it is like to be very noisy unless you use a rubber drive belt and mount the motor with some sort of mechanical isolation. I expect noise matter for you.

I would suggest one more possibility: stepper motor and toothed belt. It will require a controller, but if you use a small MCU, that could be pretty neat and you could have it do other things. You will still need a mechanically isolated mount for the motor because if you rigidly mount the motor, whatever it is mounted to will become a sounding board.
 
Last edited:

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
(where to put motors, what kind of slides work with what kind of motors)
If your talking standard ball bearing type drawer slides, how will you make this work if you don't want anything showing when the monitor isn't in sight? Drawer slide are sometimes called drawer guides because that is what they do they guide the movement not make it move.

Some one asked how much distance you need fro it to move, a 2oz(?) monitor can't be very big so can't imagine it having to move far.
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,809
I am trying, and failing miserably, to imagine a monitor weighing 2 oz being raised and lowered by drawer glides. There is something wrong here. Did you mean 2 lb?

Bob
 

Thread Starter

TheGuyMain

Joined Jun 28, 2021
21
The proposed solution will work, but it is like to be very noisy unless you use a rubber drive belt and mount the motor with some sort of mechanical isolation. I expect noise matter for you.

I would suggest one more possibility: stepper motor and toothed belt. It will require a controller, but if you use a small MCU, that could be pretty neat and you could have it do other things. You will still need a mechanically isolated mount for the motor because if you rigidly mount the motor, whatever it is mounted to will become a sounding board.
Why would it be noisy? and how would I use a rubber drive belt in the design? I'm inexperienced with this kind of stuff so I'm having a hard time following
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
Why would it be noisy?
Do you have a cell phone? Put it on a desk/table top and with it set on vibrate, and wait for a call. Any thing that has a motor, electric or internal combustion makes noises when it runs. Mounting it without some type of isolation will cause the surface it's mounted on to vibrate and amplify the vibrations. Just like the top of a guitar or head of a drum.

While what you want to do seems like it would be easy, in reality it will need some fabrication skills.

Does this have to be hidden when in the lowered position?
 

Thread Starter

TheGuyMain

Joined Jun 28, 2021
21
Do you have a cell phone? Put it on a desk/table top and with it set on vibrate, and wait for a call. Any thing that has a motor, electric or internal combustion makes noises when it runs. Mounting it without some type of isolation will cause the surface it's mounted on to vibrate and amplify the vibrations. Just like the top of a guitar or head of a drum.

While what you want to do seems like it would be easy, in reality it will need some fabrication skills.

Does this have to be hidden when in the lowered position?
not entirely. I don't need everything to be hidden if I mount the motors and whatnot on the back of the monitor and just make the casing around them.
 
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