Looking for a 360 degree hinge that had no slop was harder than [Mr. LeMieux] thought it would be. Add to the fact it had to be made completely out of metal with no plastic components — and basically fireproof. He was coming up blank.
You see, [Mr. LeMieux] is casting metal components, and needed a hinge to close two halves of a mold. When he couldn’t find anything commercially available, he decided to design his own. Using aluminum, he machined the two halves with an interlocking mechanism between the two. Essentially, it’s a 3-bar linkage, but if he stopped there, it would have too much slop. So he actually designed in two fixed gears that roll over each other — this ensures the hinge stays perfectly smooth throughout its entire range of movement — it’s actually quite ingenious.
Though we gotta admit, we’re only seeing about 355 degrees of rotation…
Interested in metal casting? Why not build your own casting furnace?
[via r/metalworking]
Filed under: cnc hacks
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