Jigsaw puzzles are a fun and interactive way to spend an afternoon or twelve, depending on the piece count and your skill level. It’s exciting to find the pieces you need to complete a section or link two areas together, but if you have poor dexterity, excitement can turn to frustration when you move to pick them up. [thomasgruwez] had the disabled and otherwise fumble-fingered in mind when he created this pick and place jigsaw puzzle aid, which uses suction to pick up and transport puzzle pieces.
The suction comes from an aquarium pump running in reverse, a hack we’ve seen often which [thomasgruwez] explains in a separate Instructable. A large, inviting push button is wired in line to turn the pump on and off. An equally large and inviting momentary switch turns off the vacuum temporarily so the piece can be placed.
At the business end of this hack is the tiny suction-cupped tip from a cheap vacuum pen. To interface the pen head with the pump, [thomasgruwez] designed and printed a rigid straw to bridge the gap. With utility already in mind, [thomasgruwez] also designed a ring that can be bolted to the straw to house a steadying finger of your choice, like the pinkie hook on a pair of barbers’ shears.
Our favorite part of this hack has to be the optional accessory—a tiny platform for quickly flipping pieces without cutting the vacuum. Check it out after the break.
I have arthritis and love the thought that went into this. Might have to make this to help picking up small electronics components.
I’ve had pretty good luck with the Vacuum Sucking Pen kind.
I had “pretty” good luck with one of those $1 ones too. Then I took the tip of the tool and put it into a syringe, which had a spring inside it. Now it’s really good. Vacuum is strong enough to hold even large ICs when poking them. Before the mod ICs often dropped when they touched the PCB even slightly.
Demonstrated in my video
“Jigsaw puzzles are a fun and interactive way to spend an afternoon or twelve […]. It’s exciting to find the pieces you need to complete a section or link two areas together,”
You lost me there.
There’s a dead cheap, dead simple alternative sold by model railroad tool suppliers. Looks like an oversize eyedropper with a suction cup on the end. Here it is: http://www.micromark.com/Model-Pal-Vacuum-Pickup-Tool,7851.html
Yeah, they’re great. Literally for a buck and change on ebay.
this would be a great build for the game/activity room in care-homes.
my father loved puzzles, but as ALS robbed him of his dexterity, he couldn’t keep doing them without help. Add this as a tool-end to an actuated arm, and anyone can love a ravensburger again!
This is absolutely brilliant. I can see hundreds of ways that something like this could help me out with my own case of fumble-fingers. I might just have to build something like this…
Nice project. However, I would quickly tire of the on – off switch. My suggestion is to incorporate an air inlet somewhere between the finger hold and the vacuum tip. In this way, with the unit always on, one’s index finger can cover the air inlet to cause vacuum at the tip. When the finger is removed from the inlet, the vacuum at the tip will greatly diminish thus dropping the puzzle piece.
Rapidly switch on/off inductors isn’t good for the pump and the switch as there can be a huge inrush current in the first few cycles. The worse case for inductor are at zero crossing and if the residual magnetic field in the core happens to line up with the first cycle of the field polarity and you’ll get core saturation and one huge inrush.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inrush_current#Transformers
The aquarium pumps I have come across have enough series resistance to make inrush a non issue.