I Want To Make A Torsion Spring Gripper

[JamesG]

How would I go about this? Not necassarily to mass produce them but just to make a couple for me. Any tips on this would be appreciated.

[brujeria]

How would I go about this? Not necassarily to mass produce them but just to make a couple for me. Any tips on this would be appreciated.

Some springs seems to be available at http://www.pythongrip.com/index.php/grippers.html

[Cannon]

You really should be able to get springs locally. I believe Acorn has even wound his own. You just need to source the materials locally (glue, aluminum stock, etc.)

That is going to be the fun part of this for you. The adventure of actually putting it together. Otherwise this is going to be like me building my own bass guitar from scratch. I spent about $600 on supplies and tools, COUNTLESS hours, and the thing is still not 100% and while I am VERY proud of the project, I could have bought a finer crafted bass for the same amount of money or less.

Good luck on the project! If you make any we would LOVE to see them.

[acorn]

Like Matt said, it is possible to create your own grippers, Definitely not cost effective though. NOT even ballpark. If you are thinking of winding your own you will need decent machinist skills, some knowledge of metallurgy and a creative mind. I have wound my own and I have all of those things, it still took time to source materials, build jigs, etc and wind them. The ones I did were fully functional but used for very custom trophies for last years AZ Cactus Grip comp. To have custom springs wound you will need a supplier and knowledge of how to create a blueprint for Torsion spring for them. That or a supplier willing to take an example and spec off of it. I've had small runs quoted of up to 25ish springs and they were still in the $30 - 35 range each for just the spring, without shipping or even handles, assembly, etc.

- Aaron