Powered Desk Chair

This project had a lot of potential, but I kind of let it fail. Maybe I'll finish it one day, but it probably won't be any time in the near future.

I had an Ikea desk chair that didn't roll very well, so I figured I'd modify it into a powered desk chair. It would have "swerve modules" to give it the ability to strafe and turn just like a normal unpowered desk chair. The design was fairly simple stuff that I had basically done in robotics at my high school. The intended final chair would have looked like this, but the electronics required to make it run properly were a bit out of my budget range.

The continuous 40A motor controllers put the electronics out of my budget considering the ones I had used in the past cost around 90 dollars a piece. I made the three swerve modules before I decided to ditch the project.

 As with most of my projects I had to use the arbor press. It took apart that Ikea chair with ease.

Even though I bagged the project I learned a lot from its construction. In order to make the sprockets I wrote a program in python to generate the g-code for my CNC to cut any size sprocket. I also learned what tolerances are needed to make a chain drive without a chain tensioner and I also learned what tolerances work with bevel gears. Did I mention that I also have 3 very cool looking paper weights?