Electromagnetically actuated vibrating platforms designed for fatigue testing of assemblies have been available for some time. These platforms are primarily designed for extended duration, constant-amplitude sinusoidal excitation for stress testing of aerospace and military products, and are frequently available at considerably reduced prices. In the original design, operation was neither closed-loop nor capable of swept-frequency output. One of the objectives for this study is to design and renovate a used shaker table into a state-of-the-art vibration testing station. The methods by which such an electromagnetic force generator is converted for utilization as a closed-loop materials testing station is described. This paper also discusses using a microcomputer as a viable, cost-effective alternative for short duration tests as opposed to more sophisticated and costly equipment. For certain applications, a microcomputer can be configured into a dynamic vibration system to control the desired random vibration imposed on a structure. In this case, the control signal (a digital signal from the microcomputer) can be generated for a given spectral density function.