Hi,

I'm doing a project where I need a shelf to slide out from a cabinet and then move vertically up and down. We were thinking of using labview,myDaq and a dc motor but we cant think of a cheap mechanism to move the shelf. Any help is appreciated.

 

Sounds like a school project... If so you can usually get away with a little more scavenging. Go to the junk yard and check out the actuators for power windows. For a real product you would uses something similar.

 

You need to supply more info. How much lift is required, how much weight must it support?

You could use motors and worm gears but all depends on your weight and lift. You would need something to guide it, you could use shafts and linear bearings. I can't say that it would be cheap.

Another option would be to suspend it from above and use pulleys and cables or chains to lift and lower, again with some sort of guides to keep it straight. This would Prob be a good cheap way to go.

Another option might be hydraulics.

Google height adjustable tv mount and you will see a bunch, they all have hydraulics built in to counter the weight so it doesn't take much effort to lift. This would still be manual though.

If supporting all this on drawer slides is the plan you would have to consider the weight of everything. Again you would probably better off suspending the whole thing and having an overhead structure.

Post a diagram if you want better suggestions.