grip

6 Articles

Flexible Grip For Hammer Made With 3D Printing Pen

May 19, 2022 by 17 Comments

When it comes to putting a flexible grip on a tool, you might reach for a self-fusing silicone tape or other similar product. However, [Potent Printables] has discovered you can easily create a flexible grip using a 3D-printing pen and some flex filament.

In this case, a hammer first gets a layer of blue painters tape wrapped around its wooden handle. This serves as a base layer to promote good adhesion. A simple paper template was then printed as a guide for creating the graphics on the flexible grip. Flexible filament was fed through the 3D pen, with the red and black details of the graphics printed first. Then, white flex filament was used to make the rest of the flexible grip. A wood burning tool was then used to smooth out the first layer of flex filament, before a second layer was added on top.

The result is a flexible white grip on the hammer which is stuck fast, likely due to shrinkage as the plastic cooled after printing. We’ve seen some other creative grips made with 3D printing before, too. Video after the break.

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3D Printed Climbing Holds, Now With Texture

February 26, 2022 by 4 Comments

Technology enables all kinds of possibilities to mold our environments in the way we best see fit. Plenty of ski resorts use snowmaking to extend their seasons, there are wave pools for surfing hundreds of miles away from oceans, and if you don’t live near any mountains you can build your own climbing wall as well. For the latter, many have turned to 3D printers to create more rock-like climbing grips but plastic doesn’t tend to behave the same as rock unless you do what [Giles Barton-Owen] did and incorporate salt into the prints.

For small manufacturers, typically the way that the rock texture is mimicked is by somehow incorporating sand, permanently, into the grip itself. This works well enough but is often too rough on climbers’ hands or otherwise doesn’t faithfully replicate a rock climbing experience. For these grips, instead of including sand, salt crystals of a particular size were added to a resin that was formed over the 3D printed grip. Once the resin cures substantially, the water-soluble salt can be washed away leaving a perfect texture to grab onto with chalked hands.

While this might not be a scalable method for large-scale climbing grip manufacturers, [Giles] hopes this method will help smaller operations or even DIY climbers to build more realistic grips without having to break the bank. In fact, he has already found some success at his local climbing gym using these grips. The method may be more difficult to scale for larger manufacturers but for anyone who wants to try it out themselves, all that’s needed for this build is a 3D printer, salt, and time.

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Dexterity Hand Is A Configurable Prosthetic Hand

December 14, 2018 by 5 Comments

One of the interesting benefits of the 3D printing revolution is the dramatic increase in availability of prosthetics for people with virtually any need. With a little bit of research, a 3D printer, and some trial and error, virtually anyone can build a prototype prosthetic to fit them specifically rather than spend thousands of dollars for one from a medical professional. [Dominick Scalise] is attempting to flesh out this idea with a prosthetic hand that he hopes will be a useful prosthetic in itself, but also a platform for others to build on or take ideas from.

His hand is explained in great detail in a series of videos on YouTube. The idea that sets this prosthetic apart from others, however, is its impressive configurability while not relying on servos or other electronics to control the device. The wearer would use their other hand to set the dexterity hand up for whatever task they need to perform, and then perform that task. Its versatility is thanks to a unique style of locks and tensioners which allow the hand to be positioned in various ways, and then squeezed to operate the hand. It seems like a skilled user can configure the hand rapidly, although they must have a way to squeeze the hand to operate it, or someone will need to develop an interface of some sort for people without needing to squeeze it.

To that end, the files for making your own hand are available on Thingiverse. [Dominick] hopes that his project will spark some collaboration and development, using this hand as a basis for building other low-cost 3D printed prosthetics. There are many good ideas from this project that could translate well into other areas of prosthetics, and putting it all out there will hopefully spur more growth in this area. We’ve already seen similar-looking hands that have different methods of actuation, and both projects could benefit from sharing ideas with each other.

Thanks to [mmemetea] for the tip!

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Mechatronic Hand Mimics Human Anatomy To Achieve Dexterity

October 18, 2018 by 8 Comments

Behold the wondrous complexity of the human hand. Twenty-seven bones working in concert with muscles, tendons, and ligaments extending up the forearm to produce a range of motions that gave us everything from stone tools to symphonies. Our hands are what we use to interface with the physical world on a fine level, and it’s understandable that we’d want mechanical versions of ourselves to include hands that were similarly dexterous.

That’s a tall order to fill, but this biomimetic mechatronic hand is a pretty impressive step in that direction. It’s [Will Cogley]’s third-year university design project, which he summarizes in the first video below. There are two parts to this project; the mechanical hand itself and the motion-capture glove to control it, both of which we find equally fascinating. The control glove is covered with 3D-printed sensors for each joint in the hand. He uses SMD potentiometers to measure joint angles, with some difficulty due to breakage of the solder joints; perhaps he could solve that with finer wires and better strain relief.

The hand that the glove controls is a marvel of design, like something on the end of a Hollywood android’s arm. Each finger joint is operated by a servo in the forearm pulling on cables; the joints are returned to the neutral position by springs. The hand is capable of multiple grip styles and responds fairly well to the control glove inputs, although there is some jitter in the sensors for some joints.

The second video below gives a much more detailed overview of the project and shows how [Will]’s design has evolved and where it’s going. Anthropomorphic hands are far from rare projects hereabouts, but we’d say this one has a lot going for it.

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When Life Gives You An F-15 Throttle Grip Make A Cool Joystick

March 2, 2016 by 21 Comments

We’re not certain where [NoPleaseDont] got an F-15 Throttle Grip, but it would certainly be a waste not to make something cool out of one. The F-15 is a twin engine air superiority fighter, and in it’s niche, it is one of the most successful ever made. We imagine this makes it a popular choice in air simulators.

Equipped with his successful scrounge [NoPleaseDont] decided to build a full HOTAS, Hands On Throttle and Stick, joystick. He started by taking apart the throttle grip.  As each layer was pulled a part, we were pleased to see the reassuring infestation of quality control stamps you’d expect to find on the input of a 26million dollar machine. The pinouts were presumably taken and the handle was reassembled. After that, a lot of custom sheet metal parts, 3D prints, and clever bracketry came together to form the frame of the joystick.

Finally came the electronics. Many of the photos were too blurry to decode, but at minimum a Teensy and custom LED control board is involved. The frame got a few additional buttons and control panels added.

The resulting joystick has a great history, and more buttons than we can guess the purpose of.

Robot Gripper Uses Coffee To Pick Up Anything

October 26, 2010 by 35 Comments

Picking up a raw egg is not something we’d think a robot gripper would be good at. But this model uses a bulbous tip instead of claw, which makes crushing the object less of a concern.

That tip is kind of like a balloon. It is stretched full with coffee grounds but air can also be pumped in and sucked out. When it comes time to grip an object, a bit of air is pumped in and the bulb is pressed down on its target. Once in place all of the air is sucked out, locking the coffee grounds around the object. Take a look after the break to see just how many things can be gripped with this technique.

Now the real question, can it bring me a beer?

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