I-Wei thought his SwashBot 2 was cool and all, but had lost some of the character of his original SwashBot. So, he built a third version that combines the mobility of the second with the charm and personality of his first crab bot. To build the body and the leg components, he used an amazing molding material called ShapeLock. Seeing the results definitely makes this something I want to check out. You can mold it very thin and flexible for the body pieces or thick and rigid for functional components like the leg segments.
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I’ve been using shapelock for a few years now, it’s great stuff. Very reusable, just reheat and reuse.
I toss it into a pyrex with water and nuke it for a few minutes. You need to be patient, no point in overheating it as it doesn’t make the process faster, and can result in burns. It doesn’t take all that long anyway, just a few minutes.
Anyway, it’s lots of fun, machinable, and easy as pie to prototype stuff or solve some problems that need a custom something. I used a bit of it to mount a video cam on my R/C plane. Worked great, and took me about 10 minutes.
Stunning work (again!) from Crabfu. I can’t decide if I want to see it dressed in a hula skirt, or with a little top hat and cane . . .
I created a similar crab:
http://www.scottsbots.com/articles/33.php
where can you get shapelock?
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