Robot Claw

There’s nothing like a craft project on Easter Sunday is there? But for me, this year I wouldn’t be colouring eggs or making a basket… I decided to tackle three of the projects I received for Christmas.

The first was this Praxinoscope kit received from JAF:

It’s not really a craft project at all, since there is very little assembly. Even the batteries were included! The few pieces snapped together and it looked like this:

The idea is to look through the viewing window while rotating the disc to see a simple animation. Here’s a short video of what the above disc looked like when animating:

Not bad is it? I have to be honest though; the product does have it’s issues. The printed discs with the animations on them didn’t align well with the reflecting surfaces, and the weight of the top of the device is too great for the tiny support it is attached to. It also could have done with a better axle mechanism allowing for smoother and longer spinning. Still, it does a good job of illustrating how these 140-year-old devices work and would be, I believe, a fun toy for a kid since it includes blank discs on which someone could design their own animation.

Continuing the theme of row boats, the next challenge was this one:

SFL gave me this for Christmas, and I was very much looking forward to putting it together. Let’s look inside the box:

Hrm, not too many parts, but some that look a bit complex. Recalling the tank incident from the other week, I was particularly hesitant when I noticed the little blue bottle. Happily, that ended up being grease and not glue!

Assembly was challenging but not difficult, mostly due to the screws not being particularly co-operative and requiring a lot more force than I was initially prepared to supply. I was worried about cracking the plastic!

That’s the motor case above, showing the switch, motor (underneath) and the wiring. The wires gave me a bit of trouble; I was quite relieved when I tested the mechanism to see that the motor actually worked!

The close to finished boat. Much of the mechanism is installed, including the battery case, the rowing ‘pistons’ and the gearing system. Also, not very visible in this shot, a mysterious piece of styrofoam is attached inside the rear back of the boat. Since this would not help buoyancy under normal use, I can only imagine it is to prevent the entire thing from sinking if it starts going under.

And there it is fully assembled, which took maybe an hour. It is well balanced and well geared, and it works! Here’s proof:

I didn’t flip the switch correctly in the video, which is why it stopped at the end 🙂

Anyway this thing has to be tested! But the test will wait for SFL herself. Next time she visits I’ll find a pond somewhere and we’ll send it on it’s maiden voyage. Stay tuned for results!

The last craft kit came from BFS (the F is for Francis), who sent me the third in an ongoing series of metal insects:

Yes, that is a pair of cute paws in the above picture 🙂

As you may recall from previous blog entries, these metal kits are known for their difficulty in assembly, and their ability to shred the tips of fingers due to many sharp edges. This one, happily, only fulfilled one of these criteria…. my fingers still hurt!

Here’s what it looked like once opened:

Such a tiny amount of pieces! But when I opened the plastic, it suddenly looked like a lot more:

Probably because I’ve made two such kits before, assembly was quick and easy, taking less than half an hour. All those pieces seen above (plus some screws and springs), went together to form this savage beast:

Who looks a bit bigger in the above shot than he is in reality:

He now joins his comrades, scorpion and mantid, sitting next to the TV!

Happy Easter everyone 🙂

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 31st, 2013 at 11:35 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.