Automated products are becoming more popular in today’s households. Using our products to create useful devices, such as an automated kitchen spice rack, we aim to show you how linear actuators can help save space, provide innovative designs, and create an efficient home.
Bringing Automation into Your Home
Having its roots in the Middle Ages, automation started gathering significant momentum in the 1950s. Back then it was predominantly an industrial issue, with robots performing repetitive tasks at assembly lines. As they are so affordable, robots are taking their first tentative steps to cross the thresholds of our homes. They take part in upgrading desks in dens, hiding TVs in living rooms, and facilitating our cooking efforts in kitchen automation, like with this project.
Despite the popularity of eating out, the kitchen is still perceived as the hub of the house. Today, the two main drivers behind all kitchen automation endeavours are aimed at reaching greater comfort and saving more space. The first is evident in furnishing kitchen cabinetry with lifting systems, whereby cupboards can be lowered and raised back to their initial position. The second objective is aimed at saving space or hiding elements, whether it be to save space in a small apartment or house, or also to modernize your home with secret compartments. Tucking away food processing machines as well as other cumbersome objects (such as microwave ovens or bottle crates) creates a great need for inventive space saving, automated options.
This is where the installation of an automated spice rack comes to play. Also known as a pop-up spice rack, this construction rises from the kitchen counter, kitchen island, or any other horizontal surface and hides back down when you are done with cooking. Since the shape and the location of it depends on the specific layout of the kitchen it is going to be installed in, it is preferable to have a specialist to do it. We have however, added instructions on taking the step to automate your home, along with an informative video at the end of the article.
Creating a DIY Spice Rack
This task would be no trouble for anyone with nimble fingers and basic construction skills, provided they have the necessary materials. Below, we have listed the products required to get started at putting everything together.
Products and Specifications
- 1 x PA-14 linear actuator
- Stroke: from 6” to 24”, depending on the size and height of your spice rack. (The PA-14-12-50 model is used in the video below).
- Force: 50lbs.
- 2 x BRK-14 mounting brackets
- 1 x RC-03 rocker switch
- 1 x AC-03 battery
Optional Elements
- PA-20 Control Box (for AC power and wired control).
- PA-30 Control Box (for DC power and wireless control).
Putting Everything Together
- Purchase a spice rack or the material to build your own along with rails that are at least as long as the rack.
- Assemble the spice rack and attach the guide rails and mounting bracket to it.
- Cut a hole in your kitchen cabinet to fit the length, width, and depth of your spice rack. Make sure the lid of the rack fits the hole perfectly so that you could use the surface when the rack is down.
- Attach the second (motor end) mounting bracket into the location where the spice rack will retract to. In the aforementioned video, we attached the motor end mounting bracket to a piece of wood and then attached this wood to the bottom of the cabinet.
- Attach the actuator to the bottom of the spice rack with one mounting bracket while the other should be attached to the top lid of the rack from below.
- Mount your guide rails (with spice rack attached) to your counter.
- Attach a rocker switch and battery to the actuator.
Final Word
And there you have it! How to automate you very own DIY spice race. If you want to create a spice rack of your own, or have a similar DIY project, you can also contact our support team with any queries!