Motorized and Detachable Lazy Susan

Description

Lazy Susans are pretty common to come across, and even IKEA has their version - the Snudda. However, motorized turntables are much rarer to encounter. So naturally, I decided to build a system that could turn an ordinary wooden Lazy Susan into a motorized piece of equipment, that could be used to make nice B roll for videos and help out with 3D scanning small objects. The easiest option to motorize a turntable would be to attach the motor shaft directly to the plate of the turntable. That would mean that the speed and torque of the motor are directly transmitted to the plate, and thus, we would need to find a pretty strong motor that doesn't turn very fast - for example, a NEMA 17 with an Arduino. Although that first option would be without a doubt the most time-efficient way to make yourself a motorized turntable, I wanted to challenge myself a bit and instead use a tiny 12V DC motor that's normally used in small appliances such as RC cars. That will allow me to keep the size as compact as possible and, in theory, also save some money on components. That means, that we can't just connect the tiny motor directly to the turntable. We need to come up with a way that would give the motor more power while also reducing the speed to a usable level - but more on that later. The second requirement I imposed on myself was to make the motorization part of the project detachable. That way, if I ever need to use the Lazy Susan again in a kitchen environment, it would look just like a regular turntable. Thus, I decided to go with a more complex design that incorporates two gears - one glued to the turntable and the other screwed to a motorized stand. When the turntable sits on that stand, it will be powered by the motor, and when I need it in the kitchen, I can just lift the turntable off the stand without having to undo any screws or pulleys. Please note that even though my version of this project works, it could be improved by using a bigger stepper motor and perhaps some Arduino magic for more precise controls. So please use this Instructable just as a reference and don't hesitate to bring your own improvements to make the system more reliable and powerful. Here's a video about this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnpqFsf06sc

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