4. Manufacturing and Assembly - JP

In order to create the links and joints using the materials (plywood, dowels, and cardboard), boxcutters and Tacky glue were used. The "ground" base was made out of cardboard. The links were made by cutting the plywood in half, so the width of all the links was 1/2 in.

The first links made were the input crank and the follower links. Since the lengths gathered from PMKS are the lengths between the joints, I added about 1/2 inch to all the measurements to ensure that were was enough space to create the pin slots in the links. Using the 1/2 in. wide plywood pieces, I cut a set of the appropriate lengths for the input crank and follower links. I then cut out small pieces to act as supports to make the links three plywood pieces thick. For the follower link, the pin slot that was to be connected to the coupler link was extended to ensure stability in the pin joint. The next links made were the coupler link and the ground slider link that holds slider joint B. Because PMKS doesn't show the lengths of the slots, I had to use the experimental data points to obtain the lengths of the slots. However, I added 1/2 in. on both ends of the slot to ensure that the slots aren't too tight for the slider joints. Sketches of the links are shown below (Note. Sketches not to scale):

Figure 7: Input Crank

Figure 8: Follower Link

Figure 9: Top View of Follower Link

Figure 10: Ground Sliding Link

Figure 11: Coupler Link

The ground joints were made similarly to the slider joints but were one inch wide instead of 1/2 inch. This was to ensure that the ground joints had enough surface area to glue to the base. Using the YouTube video, the layout of the layering of the links was obtained. The back-most layer would be the ground sliding joint, followed by the coupler, then the input crank, and the follower is the front-most layer.

The base was made by cutting two big pieces of cardboard that would act as the upper and lower ground for the mechanism followed by many smaller pieces of cardboard that would act as supports for the base. The smaller pieces were glued vertically and were four inches wide, which is based on the PMKS. Slots were cut from the upper and lower ground bases to allow the links to rotate through its desired angles. A sketch of the base layout can be seen below:

Figure 12: Cardboard Cutout of Base