November 16, 2017 (posted 9-30-22)

The CLAW

This is an older project I made back in 2017 but never got around to posting (mainly because I forgot about it). I always loved arcade type claw machines even though I know they are rigged and I always wanted to make my own. I’ll probably never get around to making the whole machine but I designed the claw part of it just to learn a little more CAD at the time.

This is the original CAD design I came up with after looking at claw pictures online and figuring out how everything works.

The internals.

The main links and linkages were a little challenging to figure out from just pictures but I made it work.

The 2-56″ screws I used tighten against each other to leave a little slop so the linkages are smooth.

I used a threaded shaft and knuckle to actuate the fingers.

That fits inside the main body.

Which threads into the inner shaft.

On the other end of the inner shaft is one half of a slip coupler.

The other half of the slip coupler attached to a small geared motor.

On the rear of the geared motor setup is a pen spring.

This whole setup fits into the motor cap.

The slip coupler works by spring pressure….

(pressed in)  this allows the fingers to open or close to there limits before the spring pressure allows the slip coupler to slip (or pop), in turn this makes it so the motor can never stall.

I little bit of strain relief on the wires.

The finished CLAW.

Here you can see it in action. It might be a little slow but I can fix this with a higher RPM motor or change the thread pitch on the shaft but I kind of like it where it’s at for now.  I let the slip coupler pop a few times just so you can see how it works.  Maybe some day I’ll get around to making the whole machine.

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