Replication: carpenter's bench clamp

A replication of mechanism #180 from 507 Mechanical Movements, Mechanisms, and Devices by Henry T. Brown.

This is a clamp with a jaw/lever that pushes down on an object that's pushed into it. Pushing the object in pushes the jaw up and the back of the jaw down into the object. Pulling the object out releases the pressure.

I have thought that this might be useful for robots gripping an object. It's one of those "smart mechanism" that works in a clever way and doesn't need extra operation.

507 Mechanical Movements, Mechanisms, and Devices by Henry T. Brown

This is an excellent book for inspiration on mechanisms. It was first published around the turn of the century and has had many editions. There are pictures on one page and explanations on the opposite. They have retained the original drawings and text, so everything on the inside looks old fashioned. Some of the illustrations and explanations are quite short and simple, but you can often still figure things out. Many terms are not explained, as much of the book is meant for an audience who knows these things already. However, you soon learn by context what it's talking about.

There are many ingenious mechanisms in this book; I will try to replicate some with my Lego Mindstorms kit and post about them. They'll be labeled with the tag "replications."