Have shop. Bored. Looking for something to make.

--Where are you located?

Given the name of Wayne's Web site, I'd say south-central Mexico!

I think he's mentioned he's from Chula Vista. That's a town just south of San Diego.

-- Gordon

I'm sandwiched between Tijuana and Chula Vista.

Wayne Take a look at

Very astute Gordon! Puebla is halfway between Mexico City and Veracruz. I should change the website name... one of these days!

Wayne:

I've always thought that a hobbyist grade gripper could sense how tightly it is gripping something would be an interesting project. The concept here would be to have some sort of force sensor in the gripper so that the robot could command the gripper to close with

For force feedback I was think of using a spring. By Hooke's law the spring force is linearly proportional to the distance from spring rest. I figure a linear potentiometer could measure the distance from rest.

If you can work out the mechanics, I'm sure there is are a whole bunch of people who can work out the electronics. I suspect that the electronics from a servo could be place into service, since a servo is basically a potentiometer and an H-bridge driving a motor.

Anyhow, I'll leave you with the thought to see if it catches your fancy.

Later,

-Wayne (Gramlich)

Maybe the electronics are simpler, just measure the current drawn by the motors running the gripper? Then there is the issue of slippage.

-- JC

Gordon's Big Gripper has a lockjaw shape, but probably not the million-pound force locking bit.

- dan michaels

Hi. I'm building a gear cutter to replace the one I built some time ago.

Larry, have you posted this in rec.crafts.metalworking ?

Hi Wayne. No. I posted something in alt.machines.cnc to trade. Had no takers. Something I forgot to mention is that I can supply any gear under 5 in. that may be required. What I want a larger one for is to build some crop picking robots. It will require some stuff about 24" diameter. Larry