Project 2 Part 3: Prototyping the Mechanism

The next part of my mechanism that I worked on was the loop that the string would go through. It's made out of the same metal rod as the shaft, and the idea was to incorporate this metal piece into the figure pulling up the crab pot. For this reason, I tried to bend the metal as if it were the leg of the fisherman. 



The next part would be one of the most challenging aspects of the project. The rope needed to be able to move freely up and down while being constrained from moving side to side or forward and backward. The end of the rope not attached to the crab pot also needed to be able to be pushed down by the rotating pieces attached to the cams. I prototyped a four-cornered platform like the picture below, with hand-cut posts and a 3D printed rope holder. This had the right movement, but the wooden posts caused a ton a friction. 


Here you can also see I've moved to two cams, one on either side of the platform because I needed equal pressure on both sides. The free-moving aspect of the platform meant any unbalanced-ness could easily cause the mechanism to snag. 














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