The manufacturing and assembly of the machine primarily consisted consists of two distinct parts, being : the mechanism's wooden frame and the actual linkage itselfassembly.
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Frame
For the wooden frame, the design was initially assembled within SolidWorks with the dimensions of the reusable plastic bag kept in mind. The wooden frame needed to be large enough to host the bag, gear, axles, and other elements of the machine inside of it, but small enough in order for these elements to be close enough within the frame to interact with one another while also not being too costly of an investment. Since the frame is so larger, we decided to manufacture it out of laser cut Baltic birch plywood. Laser cutting is significantly faster than 3D printing. The following CAD sketches for the wooden frame can be seen below:
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For the actual construction of the wooden frame, the different wood shapes were laser cut out of a larger sheet of wood, then 1/4" Baltic birch plywood and glued together using wood glue.
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Linkage Assembly
The claw link (Link 3) and one of the spacers are laser cut out of Baltic birch plywood since their geometries were completely 2D. All other parts of the linkage assembly are 3D printed with holes oversized by 0.1-0.4 mm to make up for the additional wall thickness added by 3D printers. Parts of the linkage assembly are bolted together using M3 socket screws and nuts. Bearings are press fit into the joints and shafts are kept in place using friction from the shaft collars. We used 8 in shafts and linear bearings for the sliders and 6 in shafts and bearings for the pin joints. The added rubber on the end of the claw and the stationary grip are super glued to the linkage assembly.
last thing that needs to be done - might also need more images of the sliders attached to the inside of the box if possible
We initially had problems with machining the shafts since we were not machine shop trained. We ended up using a Dremel to cut them. To reduce undesired movement, we added shaft end caps that are friction fit to the ends of the shafts.