Making this incredible extending wooden robotic arm couldn’t be easier. It only takes about an hour, doesn’t cost much, and is fantastically fun to operate.
Simply take your wooden paint stirrers and drill 3 holes in them. Fasten them together with a bolt and nut, making sure to get a washer in between the sticks. This washer helps keep the wooden sticks from binding together and makes the robot arm much easier to use. When you’ve attached them all as shown in the diagram, add some nice soft sponges to the end to help grip things and you’ve got a brand new wooden robotic arm!
Pulling the sticks together will extend your robot arm, while pushing them apart will bring it back to you!
Click here to download the full sized version of the comic which includes all the details to build this fun project.
*Howtoon has been updated since its original publication to make up for some issues encountered when the project was being reproduced.
I don’t see how this can be made with a 1/4″ machine screw. The thickness of two paint stirrer sticks (2 x 3.5mm) exceeds 1/4″. Add a washer, and we’re close to 3/8″. I assume movement will loosen the nuts, so a 1/2″ washer is probably a better bet. We’ll be making 10 this weekend, so I’ll see.
We made 11 of these Memorial Day weekend, and here’s what I learned:
1. Buy 1/2 inch, not 1/4 inch machine screws. You’ll see why. Even if you could just manage to get the nut on a 1/4 inch screw by digging into the nearby stick, it would soon loosen.
2. Movement did loosen the nuts VERY QUICKLY, so we made sure the kids kept the nuts consistently on one side of the mechanism, then an adult put a drop of cyanoacrylate glue on the end of each screw-and-nut, and left them in a safe place to cure.
3. After cutting the grout sponges, I found the easiest way to notch them for inserting the sticks was to make an initial cut with a single edge x-acto-type blade, then use a pocket knife or small hunting knife to cut out the “sleeve” for the end sticks. Wear gloves!
4. 11 pairs of 9″ stirrers makes a very long set of “arms”. Most of our elementary school age participants were satisfied with 8-section mechanisms. For X number of sections, prepare 3X-1 machine screws, nuts, and washers.
5. It was a hit for a group ranging from 5 to 13. We also brought along a manual hand drill and a brace-and-bit, so the kids who wanted to could cut some of their sticks, with adult supervisions , gloves, and, although human-powered drills are unlikely to kick basswood fragments into the eyes, safety glasses.
Thanks for this Howtoons. It was a great rainy day project!
It’s always fun to hear about people making these projects :) Thank you so much for your advice and for pointing out some of the issues you encountered. The Howtoon has been updated with a different screw size so others can make it without running into problems, and numbers have been decreased so people don’t go too crazy when they make it. Have a great weekend!
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