Thread: Ideas for prop arm movement

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Looking for ideas on how to animate a prop so that one arms raises and lowers. The prop will be made from one inch pvc. Need ideas on type of motor/linkage/etc.. It does not have to have a huge range of motion, just enough to be noticeable.
Thanks for any help!

Well, if you aren't opposed to doing a little salvage yard shopping... Last night I had some wiper motors that I was sifting through to see which would be the best to use on my FCG revamp, since the 7 rpm gearmotor I purchased from Surplus Center is way to noisy (and vibrates heavily...not good on an aluminum frame). I found one that came from a 1990 or so Honda CRX, the rear glass wiper motor to be exact. It has a crank arm inside the casing that rotates back & forth +/- 75 degrees, and interestingly enough, it also lifts the output shaft while doing so. 2 motions for the price of one! Yay! The added bonus is that it's a very high torque gearmotor, and could probably be sourced from a local junkyard for little more than a song.

It does have a park function, but I've not played around with it enough to figure out the switch sequencing/wiring for that to operate just yet.


Edit/ Just went out and checked, and it will run on as little as 3.3 vdc.

I would think a small gear motor with a crank would be fine for lifting one arm up and down. Depends how heavy the arm is, though.
Just mount the arm where it can pivot (like a teeter-totter) and attach the motor crank at the other end. Of course, the closer the pivot point is to the crank, the more torque the motor will need to lift the arm.

I've built a couple of simple arm moving props like you describe. I used one of those little air vent motors. Here's a link to a post that shows the mechanism.

Simple Arm Animation

Here's my latest prop. Chief butcher of the SWEENEY TODD MEAT MARKET, Gourmet meats cut to order.



YouTube - butcher