Hello,
Not sure if this would be the ideal place to look for and ask for help on this, but I feel like the participants of an engineering forum are a lot more capable of figuring this out than I am.
essentially, I am looking to build a fairly low profile, above floor, rotating "stage", about 8' in diameter, and capable of holding and rotating up to about 1,500 - 2,000 lbs.
I have found a smaller example of what I need to accomplish here:
http://www.engineersedge.com/video/Rotating-platform-for-packing_v1496
But I have a few questions.
I see that he is using a gear motor and speed reducer (something I have only just learned about while trying to design this thing), and some sort of contraption for the spindle. I have no idea of what that thing is.
I have been searching all over the place to try and find those things, but there are so many options out there, and I have no idea of what exactly it is that I would need. I am finding all sorts of perfect shaped gearboxes, but I have no idea if they are too strong, too weak, too big, too small or what size/strength of a motor I would need for any one of them.
So, the questions I have are:
1: What would be an idea size/model of gearbox and motor for what I need, and if possible, where could I get them? Preferably something with the ability to have a wired directional switch, and even better some sort of speed control knob or something. This thing needs to be fairly slow, as it will have people and furniture on it.
2: What is he using for the spindle, and would there be a better alternative to achieve my goal?
3: It looks like he has welded the gear onto the gearbox. Is this the case? Or would I be able to obtain a gear that I can just slide on and maybe add a clamp or something to hold it in place? I see that many of the gearboxes seem to have a groove that would hold a gear in place while spinning.
These are things I have no been able to find myself through Googling, and even contacting Grainger, so hoping you guys might be able to help me out here.
Last edited by Kelly_Bramble; 10-24-2014 at 06:54 AM.
I think it would be best if you searched the internet for "electric low profile rotary table". There are many products available that can be easily modified to suit your application.