I needed a linear table/macro slider and I was about to buy one when I realized that I could design and make my own.. Perhaps not that much cheaper but a lot more fun than buying one :)

It's a simple design with not that many parts (see complete BOM under instructions) I wanted to use parts that are easy to get and that are inexpensive so i went with cheap China bearings/rails and ordinary threaded rod and el cheapo nuts and screws, all bought on eBay.

You get 45mm of travel and each turn of the knob equals approx 0.8mm of movement. You can use a finer threaded rod and get even higer resolution but I think 0.8mm/turn is ok in most cases. It sure beats trying to move the tripod back and forth a few mm..

The parts turn out quite good on my machine but there might be some fine trimming needed to fit the cover properly. The carriage and thread cover are designed to be printed standing up, but you are free to print them in any orientation you want :)

1 X 3D-printed front linear rail mount
1 X 3D-printed Rear Linear rail mount
1 X 3D-printed Linear carriage
1 X 3D-printed Base plate
1 X 3D-printed threaded rod cover
1 X 3D-printed knob/wheel
1 X 3D-printed crank
2 X 8mm rod/rail (125-128mm long)
4 X LM8U linear bearings (or similar IGUS or printed linear bearings)
2 X 5x10x4mm bearings
1 x M5 threaded rod (145’ish mm long)
2 X M5 nuts
2 X M5 lock nuts
5 X M3 nuts
4 X M3 lock nuts
4 X 3x7mm washers
4 X M3x12 Hex socket cap Allen screws/bolts
5 X M3x20 Hex socket cap Allen screws/bolts
2 X M3x3 set grub screw
1 X M3x8 set grub screw
1 X 1/4-20 screw minimum 13mm long (1/2”)
2 X 3/8 to 1/4 adapter (tripod mount) http://www.ebay.com/itm/131268862995?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT