Thread: How to get straight-line repetitive motion through repurposing store bought item?

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I'd like to create a haunted chessboard similar to the effect in the YouTube video below. To do so, I need a slow and repeating straight-line motion of about 7 inches up and down a chessboard.

What's the easiest way to achieve this effect? I am mechanically disinclined, so it has to be dead simple. I was hoping to find a toy or holiday motor and mechanism combo that I could simply attach a magnet to the top of. Any ideas? There must be something out there I could buy that I could repurpose.

Also, more fundamentally... how would one get any old motor, which is circular motion, to drive an up / down movement? I'm fairly sure I'd be unable to build such a transformation, but I'm still interested in the principle behind it.

Someone mentioned an Animatronics for Dummies. Was such a book ever published? Or better, is there a good web site I can do to that will teach me the basics of converting one kind of motion into another for props?

Check out this site it might help.

http://www.robives.com/mechs

Use a Servo Motor, Pinion Gear, Gear Rack and Magnets

http://servocity.com/html/gear_racks.html
http://servocity.com/html/pinion_gears.html

You'll need some kind of controller here is one that will controll up to 3 servos and is easy to teach. http://simplecircuitboards.com/Spec%...203%20Chnl.pdf

Attach one magnet to the chess piece and one the rack or servo whichever moves.

Originally Posted by Yard of monsters

Check out this site it might help.

http://www.robives.com/mechs

Very cool, thanks!

I'll need something like this one:

http://www.robives.com/mechanisms/recip

Originally Posted by scareisburg

Use a Servo Motor, Pinion Gear, Gear Rack and Magnets

http://servocity.com/html/gear_racks.html
http://servocity.com/html/pinion_gears.html

You'll need some kind of controller here is one that will controll up to 3 servos and is easy to teach. http://simplecircuitboards.com/Spec%...203%20Chnl.pdf

Attach one magnet to the chess piece and one the rack or servo whichever moves.

Thanks Scareisburg. Looks like the following would be simpler. No controller needed if I can find a gear and rack like below:

http://www.robives.com/mechanisms/recip

I'd recommend a "Slider-Crank" mechanism (http://mw.concord.org/modeler1.3/mir...iderCrank.html). Easy to convert circular motion into linear, and vice versa.

Buckaneerbabe made a haunted chessboard with a reindeer motor. It doesn't move straight across the board but it was really cheap to make. Here's a link to her vid: http://s153.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=S7300228.mp4

Piston model using a reindeer motor is easy.