Thread: Best leverage for rocking chair prop linkage

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I am doing a woman in a rocking chair to go with our baby zombie crib. I want to animate it. I just want the chair to rock slightly and slowly to look like a mother rocking a baby. I have a wiper motor and a 6v, 1.1a wall wart. What do you think is the best linkage set up to rock the chair. I know that 1.1 amps is not a lot but I don't want to order any more power supplies. I have seen othe rocking chair props and tutorials but they all seem to move the person in the chair and that causes the chair to rock. That motion is too much for what I need. Plus I don't think the lower amp power supply will give enough torque. I am looking for the best mechanical advantage. This is what I was thinking. I would mount an arm sticking out from the back of the chair. Maybe 6-12". Then have the motor mounted below the arm so it would turn in a vertical direction. Then link the motor to the the arm on the chair. The longer the arm the more mechanical advantage I will have. I will just have to hide the motor. But that is no big deal. I really only need the chair to rock slightly. Thanks.

I'm not a mechanical person, but I'd seen a haunted rocking chair where its just the chair rocking. It doesn't seem to be too strong of a rocking, and they posted a video of the chair finished and the motor running. Not sure if it's what you're looking for but here's my favorite one.

http://www.littlekeylime.com/hill_ho...ckingchair.htm

I'm not mechanical/electrical either, but wanted to say make sure that walwart will run your motor. I have a wiper motor and it will not even turn using a 12v 800mA wart. Runs fine with a 12v 1500mA wart. I've been told that some motors need 1500mA to even start turning, let alone under load. Not sure about what a 6v wart will do. If you haven't tried it yet I would suggest testing the motor before you count on it.

Hey, also check out ScareFX rocking granny prop (Google it). I built one last week and it's really effective. I like it cause it's self-contained with no mods to the chair at all.

I did hook the walwart to the motor. It turns fine. But I tried it under load with a different leverage idea I had. It did not work. But I am not sure it would work with any motor/power supply combo.

The scarefx one is sweet. But I just don't want my woman to be rocking the chair because she will be holding a baby zombie. I just want the chair the rock real slow and slightly. But thanks. I do like the idea from the other one that rock it by the lower leg of the chair.

I did a rocking chair for a little skellie a couple years back. I mounted the lever under the chair with the motor located behind the rocker. I'm using a wiper motor with a 5VDC 3A supply. Here's a couple of videos of the prop in action:

http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...rlinkage-1.mp4

http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ckingchair.mp4

There we go. That is the idea I had using a long lever coming off the back and having the motor under it. Now I just have to hope my lower amp ps works. Thanks gang.

What about putting a long bolt through the crakk arm , then move the wipre motor under the rocker of the chair so it moves where you want it. You could put some stops in the front of the rocking chair so it doesn't move while rocking. Or you could find the pivot point on the rocker itself,drill a hole through there and make a bracket, 2 angles, then run a bolt through it .

Okay I solved the power supply issue so now I can put a bit more torque on it. But I am still going with the arm off the back of the chair. Thanks for all the help.