Small Linear Actuator for Hobby Project

Hello,

I found the perfect linear actuator for a hobby project of mine at:

http://www.mutr.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=13_438&products_id=204

Unfortunately, it is produced in England and would probably be too
expensive for me to ship to the US. Does anybody know of any US
distributors that carry this sort of thing? I have looked everywhere,
but can only find heavy-duty, industrial grade linear actuators for
sale.

Thanks,
n

 

It does cost a lot more, maybe because of fuel cost. My sister forgot a
few items last time she was here. Just a few lbs, nothing major or
expensive. The post office wanted a whopping $40 for the cheapest method
of transportation.

 

This happen to you often?

Bwuahahahahaha!

 

Well, I have had good luck with the USPS so far. If it ain't urgent I
even have Digikey ship the stuff USPS. BTW the private carriers wanted
princely three-digit sums. More money than the few clothes were worth.

 

Yep :-(

No idea but this would be the perfect time for the mainstream shipping
lines to wake up and offer surface freight deals.

 

Their product looks pretty slick but you could: Build it

Piece of threaded rod and follower nut. Small motor and some plastic
tubing for couplers.

I used that in the 60's for the rudder on an RC boat.

 

Not a hope in hell. They're not set up for small shipments- the actual
sea shipment cost is cheap (particularly on a weight basis) but there
are 'nickel and dime' extra costs that add up something like $100 per
shipment. It's surprisingly fast, maybe 10 days from Asia to the west
coast.

Sometimes if there is a large immigrant population you'll see deals by
sea to the old country (for example, the Carribean islands around
here), for domestic stuff, cars and that sort of thing.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

In L.A. there is a large German immigrant population so there are ads in
the German-Californian paper. But it doesn't work when you live 500
miles from there because you must deliver to their dock.

There are small package deals in some places already. One poster in a
German NG moved to Paraguay where there are many German retirees. He has
some deal that allows AFAIK one two-kilogram parcel per month from any
German address to Asuncion (the capital) for a flat fee of 100 Euros a
year or so. So his sister puts all the magazines she read in there every
month and ships it to the freight company which then compiles all the
Paraguay parcels for freighter transport. Much cheaper than a regular
overseas package. No such deals (yet) out here :-(

 

Those can usually only be found in Europe, not so much in the US where
Phil lives. Plus they are really slow. When I rented a truck over there
in March and had a ton of stuff loaded up I wanted to scoot the
headlights down. Thought it didn't work until my German co-pilot told me
"Just wait, it'll take several seconds before you see the beam moving down".

 

Roger that

All electronics, and Electronics Goldmine has seatbelt positioners
(cable drive), Door actuators, and even some mirror positioners
(pan-tilt) - from time to time

Is the need hobby or production? Easy enough to find a piece of
nylon, tap it for a thread and use threaded rod in a channel or square
tube. I even see motor driven linear potentiometers popping up on the
surplus market.

 

Yeah, but with automotive stuff I'd be careful. Since Lopez every tenth
of a penny is being squeezed. So if they figure that the headlights will
be adjusted an average of 500 times over the life of a car the motor
might be calculated to a lifetime in the single digit hours.

 

That's not a linear actuator. It's a "rod/screw actuator", an
ordinary electric motor driving a screw on which rides a threaded
block carrying an extension rod. You should be able to build something
like that pretty quick with hand tools, never mind a machine shop.


Mark L. Fergerson

 

Thank you for all of the replies. Does anyone know where I can find a
small electric motor like this? I have looked at Digi-Key, Mouser,
etc., but I must be missing it. I don't mind trying to build this as
long as I can find a similar motor (in size). Any leads?

 

www.goldmine-elec.com

www.allelectronics.com

www.bgmicro.com

HTH,
James Arthur

 

www.surpluscenter.com has a linear actuator for $30 Item number
5-1678

Looks more sophisticated than your reference, but along the same
lines. 6-12 volts 3" travel the motor has a 50 pulse optical speed
encoder.

 

Go to a local hobby shop where they sell RC airplanes, model trains,
and etc. If they don't have one they can probably tell you who does.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

I wonder if anyone is considering bringing back sailing ships. They don't
use _ANY_ fuel! Well, except for maneuvering and if you get caught in the
Doldrums.

Cheers!
Rich

 

Kites for container ships, looks promising, the global temp will now
only go up by 3.9998C instead of up to 4C

http://www.skysails.info/index.php?L=1


martin

 

Maybe, maybe not, but the guy who owns the ship can probably save a penny
or two on fuel for the trip.

Cheers!
Rich

 

Neat idea - been using it myself to power my kayak. I have a 2.5, 14,
24 square foot kite depending on conditions. I can make my
displacement hull speed of ~5 knots under wind power and up to 45
degrees off the wind sailing downwind.

I get a lot of comments and stop traffic with it. It works best in
open ocean away from trees but I can also use it on big lakes, and
rivers by flying the kite high enough. I steer by putting a little
drag on one or the other side with a paddle. Been at it 5 years now.