“Mr. Masher” | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

Belen and I created a machine that can rapidly mash an object placed into it using a spur gear and a tilt-hammer mechanism. This machine was made using laser-cut wood and plasma-cut steel and iterated through low, medium, and high-fidelity versions. This is shown in the presentation linked here. The finished product is demonstrated in the video below.

The process of making this machine is documented below.

The mechanical movements to be used in the final machine were chosen from 507movements.com. We decided to use movement 24: spur-gear and movement 72: tilt-hammer.
We then constructed a low-fidelity prototype of the tilt hammer using laser-cut cardboard to test out the mechanism and come to a consensus on what it could look like.
The next step was to create a concrete CAD model of the entire machine to ensure that each component is supported and the gears are spaced well. The gears were made on Adobe Illustrator using SVG files downloaded from gear generator.
We then laser-cut wood and created the mid-fidelity prototype. Since it was a mid-fidelity, we used masking tape to connect all the parts and realized that we underestimated the thickness of the wood so none of our parts fit together. This wad fixed in the high-fidelity prototype.
We then edited our SolidWorks file according to the wood’s thickness and recalculated our slip fits. This file was then converted to AI and laser cut.
We then post-processed this wood by sanding it and then staining it. We then used wood glue to glue together the multiple-layered gears and the base and the dowels to the gears and bearings.
The next step was to plasma cut steel to make the smasher’s head. This was done by creating the SVG file and converting it to Gcode to cut on the plasma cutter. The two headpieces were then post-processed by angle grinding, orbital sanding, and spray painting with royal blue.
This, along with a plaque, was then wood glued onto the assembled machine to make the finished product.