A Very Small Project For A Mechanical Engineer To Solve...

[Anonymous]

Dear Mechanical Engineers,

I am looking for some help in with a project I am looking to complete. One portion of my project involves 'engineering' a few small metal pieces together inside a hollowed out piece of wood to accomplish a very specific task. I'm hoping some brilliant engineer will help me to accomplish this, please. I would love to hear from anyone who might just be interested in helping me solve this problem. My e-mail address is [ email address removed ]. Once we connect via e-mail, I can always provide a picture and/or video footage of what it is I am looking to duplicate- and even perhaps improve.

Thanks!
~Anonymous

[Kelly_Bramble]

Sounds like you’re looking for private tutoring or to hire an engineer, have you tried Engineers Edge New Career Center? ---> http://www.engineersedge.com/engineering-jobs/index.htm

----Or----

You could just post your question and related pictures on this engineering forum...

[PinkertonD]

As Kelly suggests, posting the questions and pics here may get faster help. If you are possibly improving on something that already exists then there is little chance of you getting a Patent on any improvements unless they are significant to the prior art.

[Anonymous]

IMG_2304.jpg

This picture is the inside of a square wood tube, approximately 18" tall. Inside the bottom (in the picture) wall of the tube is some sort of mechanism I am attempting to re-create. This mechanism is essentially a tiny metal piece that sticks out from the bottom inside of the tube (this tiny metal piece is barely visible in the attached picture). On the [I]outside wall of this same side of the tube, a button protrudes to the outside of the tube. Pressing this button in makes the tiny metal piece retract back inside the tube. When the button is released, this tiny metal piece sticks back out (inside the tube). So, the 'default' for this tiny metal piece is the 'protruding' position, and in this case 'protruding' means the tiny metal piece is now engaged and it would 'catch' whatever is inserted into the tube, provided it's big enough to be 'caught', if that makes sense.

It appears that the wall of the tube that contains this little mechanism is made up of more than one very thin layer of wood. The mechanism must have been inserted inside a hollowed out portion of this tube wall, before the wall was 'closed' using either a very very thin layer of wood, or wood filler of some sort. This portion was then sanded (this can be seen in the photo).

Might anyone be able to help me re-create this mechanism, please? I can of course provide exact measurements of the thickness of this wall of the tube, as well as the precise size of the tiny metal piece that moves in and out, along with any other necessary measurements.

Thanks in advance for your help!

~Anonymous

[RWOLFEJR]

Go outside and find a flatbed truck with steel racks around its bed. Take a look at the gravity keepers at the base of the gates. These keep the gates from coming up and out of their holes. You push the little curved nub of the "wire" in and the catch that drops into the gate retracts. You let it loose and it drops back into the gate. The weight of the "wire thingy" (technical term...) is balanced in such a way that it falls back to the default position of "latched."

Either this or they have a spring inside of their "see-saw" inside the hollowed portion of the tube wall...? The nub you push is on the ground side of the vertical see-saw... the nub that pokes into the tube is on the seat side of the see-saw on the other end of the fulcrum point.

That'll be $500.oo please...
Thanks for the work...!
Bob

[Anonymous]

Bob,

Thanks for your thoughts! Check your private messages...

Best,
Anonymous