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Finding Parts for Home-Made 'Bots?
Peter DeWeese asks: "For beginners in the field of anatomical robots, it is quite hard to find resources and shops from which to obtain small parts to build joints. Customized ball joints and a few other types are all that should be needed, and I am sure that others out there have built such machines from their own basements. Does anyone have any good resources on how to build/obtain small unarticulated mechanical joints that would be suitable? Please keep in mind that beginners often don't have metal lathes and high temperature welding torches."
Check out the link below for a few surplus electronic parts distributors. I personally use bgmicro (they are listed at the URL) a lot. They have a great PDF catalog you should check out. It's impossible to afford electrical hobbies on a typical college student income without these surplus shops. Even with their help, expect to drop a few hundred dollars initially. Microcontroller programming kits, motors, IC's, PCB's/Chemicals, test equipment, tools and such really add up.
Electronics Sources: Surplus
This guy built some robots for this company. And he told me, that he bought most parts, even the engines for arms etc. from eBay.
http://www.robotstore.com/catalog/group.asp?gid=4
Look for the MuscleWires, Shape Memory Alloys, and NanaMuscles. These are all electric based muscles, the wires heat up and contract or expand to short degrees. A good alternative to the AirMuscles (which are cool, no doubt) when you have electricity but no compressed air.
Glonoinha
If you have to compare two systems with a stopwatch, they are the same speed.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
Hey, there's a little mad scientist in you already, if you're trying to build a robot. Why not go all the way and find dead equipment, harvesting them for their parts?
Sometimes you get an idea of how something's supposed to be, and no other options seem possible. When you're ripping apart an old copier, or cash register, you'll see a lot of ways to get things done. You can adapt what you need to what you have.
My best sources for parts have been various pieces of office equipment. These are all robots in some way or another, since they fulfill the requirement of a machine doing something that a human would normally do manually. Old scanners and printers are full of gears, motors, toothed belts, pulleys, rollers, shafts, hubs, hinges, etc. Get into a bigger piece of equipment like an old copier, and you'll have a goldmine of parts.
The best part is, you'll have a hard time paying much for the best pieces of equipment. If you want a tiny stepper motor, for example, you'll be looking for a full-height RLL 20MB hard drive. Also, really old 5-1/4" and 8" floppy drives are great sources of small stepper motors, worm drives, etc.
Just keep an eye out for old equipment, make some kind of deal with whatever woman controls your life at this time, and build up a stockpile.
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