In designing my mechanism, I took to YouTube for inspiration. One video that drew my attention was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W3wgwUfjZA. I like how they use a wooden rod for the main moving piece, something with more thickness than the provided metal rod. So, I ordered half-inch wooden dows from Amazon to achieve it. I then decided to go with a rotating mechanism as seen in the video, and an offset circular disc. I made the entire mechanism about 2.5 inches in diameter with a .52 inch hole for the rod. However, at first, I used PLA to print out the mechanisms, yet the hole was not big enough for the rod. Alyssa suggested using SLA since it tends to be more accurate, and not surprisingly, it fits tightly. I made additional support by super-glueing the mechanism to the rod. (However, a slight misalignment of the teapot mechanism could not be fixed because of the super-glue). In addition, for the contact wheels, I added hot glue and rubber bands to provide friction. Overall, I like how smooth the mechanism moved, especially with the gears which required some filing to prevent the teeth from catching from one another.
Comments