#d'mon

Just to prove this project is not dead, I thought I should post ‘something’. Starting to piece together the mechanics for the hand. Spent so much time working out the exterior cladding, but needed to make sure that we could still make it work. Everything here is to scaled to fit the design as had been templated in cardboard and foam. testing this first one before building the second in case there are some minor tweaks we want to make to functionality. 

Getting started on something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Its been such an overwhelming idea to consider, but now that I’m stuck inside (Covid19 and all), I figured I’d give it a shot. Start small - one finger. Even if I don’t finish, I’ll end up with something cool to play with - a hand. Procuring materials in the near term is going to be an issue. Good thing I keep scraps of nearly everything. Hope everyone is safe

All the pieces are cut, but I need to adjust the locations and insert all the mechanism linkages before securing everything. I have learned from this prototype that the back of hand / palm needs to be larger by a significant amount in order for the fingers to proportion our right. I’ll fig it in the CAD before cutting the final parts. Speaking of CAD, I hope to have that version of the hand assembled soon. 

So I decided to prototype all the fingers and thumb. That means multiple repetitive duplicate parts. (I hate that  - and it’s why I want to laser cut the final pieces). For now, because I can’t wait, I’m doing everything by hand. I’ve templated the back of the hand, palm and thumb pad. I can’t wait to assemble, but that looks like for another time. This week while I’m not in the shop I may start to CAD the feet or legs. Wish us luck.

Since I decided that I was going to fabricate parts for this build, I also decided I would learn Fusion 360 in order to generate the parts. Honestly, right now it takes longer to prototype in the computer than it does on the bench. Here is the same linkage for the finger in Fusion. At least I know that I can output all the parts to the appropriate machines (laser, CNC and 3D print) when it comes time. I’ missing the joint covers that go over each segment, but I should have those soon. Back out to teh shot to work out the main hand and palm.

So a little progress. This prototype is helping me decide the final dimensions. the work is loose, but I’ve learned a lot. With all the duplicate pieces, it would be good to have these laser cut. We’ll have to figure that out in this ‘only essential services’ environment. Today’s lesson was bigger knuckles and thinner fingers

Dare me to make this?

Apenas meu silencio pra você...