Cheap, short linear actuator?

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Feb 5, 2003

cheesy9999

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Cheap, short linear actuator?

I'm looking for some sort of linear actuator or similar device to open the top to my amp rack, but I don't have an urge to spend $150 on a little friggin motor. Why are these things so damn expensive?

I'm looking for a short one, maybe 4 inches, and it doesn't need to lift a lot of weight, a 5-10 pound load would be sufficient (it's just a peice of Plexi). Isn't there something in the sub-$50 range? I can't believe they cost so much!

Any alternatives?

Feb 5, 2003

LudlamTheory

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try
an old power antenna motor... or... you can run some gears or something on a standard motor...

Feb 5, 2003

WhiteRabbit

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cheap linear actuator is an oxymoron [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

Feb 5, 2003

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I was thinking, maybe you could use an r/c car Servo to do it?It won't need to be high speed, so a retract one that's slow, but has a lot of torque might be alright. I'm not quite sure how you'd ook it up though.

http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/444220.asp

http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStre...rvobasics.html