An Ass-Grabbin' Grave Grabber

Yesterday I went to the NJ/PA Make & Take group in Neptune with NoahFentz where the project du jour was a grave grabber. The mechanism designed by niblique71 (Greg) is apparently slightly different than other similar builds on the Internet and forums as it allows for a more straight hand movement. In many of the props built, the hand moves in more of an arc.



Of course, there's a reason for that because we're trying to turn a circular motion into a linear movement. Adding more "linkages," apparently helps that out.


I wasn't initially keen on building the prop, but figured my doghouse where my failed reindeer/cat/dog creation was previously housed would be better served by a grave grabber like this. But I think there's still too much arc movement in the design, so I'm scouting around now for designs (I know I've seen them!) that translates the circular movement of a gear motor to a straight linear motion.

Greg's tutorial shows the movement towards the end, but if you want to build one yourself, it's a great video to watch nonetheless.



I did find a thread on HauntForum which led me to this design of a Grave Peeper by stokstad that uses the gear motor to create a straight up-and-down motion. Laying that down flat would seem to give me the straight reaching motion I'm looking for (it's also very cool the head turning mechanism stokstad designed into his Peeper).



Does anyone know of any other links that would discuss converting a round motion into a linear one?