Vertical Climbing CNC Machine

[jazzythumper]

Because my museum is an archive for bricks

[Andre' B]

A larger version of this could work. Maybe only need two winches as gravity could take the place of the third.
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emc...x_Joni%27s_Toy

Would likely be a conversation starter for a museum.

[Geof]

Two applications you could investigate that are similar to what you are considering are automated volume retrieval in libraries and automated part picking in warehouses.

I think the library systems are built in as part of the stacks, but I have seen pictures of part pickers that had a small column which the grabber travelled vertically on while the base of the column ran along a track on the floor along the front of the shelves; I don't know if there was an upper track for stability.

[harryn]

Hi, I have been thinking about your museum goal for bricks and storage. There is an aspect about normal bricks that might make this design concept not ideal - drilling holes in a brick and hanging it by the hole puts a lot of tensile stress on a very small point. Bricks are designed for compression loads, not tensile loads. It is quite likely that if you use the proposed hanging method, there will be substantial mechanical loss of the bricks to damage.

I would like to humbly suggest that you consider more of a shelving type arrangement where at least 60 % of the brick is sitting on a shelf. An alternative might be to put the bricks in some kind of clear plastic box and hang the box instead.

I think one point that might be helpful for us to understand - is the intention that the bricks are just archived / available for recall - sort of like an automated library book retrieval system - or - is the intention at least in part to also display the bricks ?

To answer your most basic question - how big of project is this - I would think it could be completed within 1 year with access to proper tools and some reasonable amount of spare time - and perhaps no girlfriend to distract you.

[Gir]

A larger version of this could work. Maybe only need two winches as gravity could take the place of the third. http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emc...x_Joni%27s_Toy

I have seen this used for spray painting on walls, however accuracy is a big issue. Swinging is easily induced (especially if grabbing heavy objects) and weight becomes an issue. You would need a pole/rope/counterweight hanging from a sliding rail to relieve the stress. Could work, though.

[InControl]

Jazzy,

I am a PLC (programmable logic controller) programmer and just reading through the post I think I can do exactly what you want on a large scale using a PLC and some encoders. I envision having a spreadsheet in excel that defines the individual bricks, these definitions get sent to a data registr in the PLC input from the operator using a front -end program on a touch screen or just excel would tell the thing which brick you want to retrieve and the motors run until the coordinates of that brick are reached by the encoders, at this point the PLC tells the third axis to get the brick and go to the home position where you can collect it.

[ynneb]

Theck out this. I know its not exactly what you're asking about, but it might be an alternative to your thinking.