Work-alike

The Work-Alike version of the Kassel Hand model is modified to strengthen the shell and mechanisms so their plastic material functions more closely to the iron of the original artifact. This means Work-Alike can interact with objects up to several pounds in weight and be used for a variety of experimental activities, including the Box and Roemer Cup experiments listed on our Experiments webpage. Printing, post-processing, and assembling Work-Alike takes more time than Lookalike. For example, printing the top shell at a horizontal orientation, which helps prevent delamination and contributes to a hardier shell, results in more time and effort to clear organic supports and file parts of the shell for proper fitment of the mechanisms. We recommend taking breaks during the post-processing and assembly of this version of the model.

Digital 3D Models

Work-Alike Assembled

Top Half of Shell

Bottom Half of Shell

GitHub Files to Print Your Own Work-Alike

Click here to access GitHub files to print your own Work-Alike.

New To Printing? Here Are Some Helpful Tips

An .STL file contains information about all the shapes that make up the item you want to 3D print, but it doesn’t tell a machine how to make it. Let’s use a recipe in a cookbook as an analogy. You can think of an .STL file as a picture of a finished dish in in a cookbook, your 3D printer as a chef, and GCode as a recipe. When you have a picture of how a dish should look, you don’t necessarily have all the information you need to make it—you need a recipe. When you process an .STL file with a slicer software, the software takes that picture and writes a “recipe” for the 3D printer to follow: a GCode file, written in the programming language that gives your printer step-by-step instructions to create a model. Because different 3D printers need different base settings written into their GCode, you will need to use a slicer set up to work with your specific 3D printer. Your slicer will have various settings you can change to make small adjustments in how your 3D printer will create each model. Settings that work for one printer or filament may not work for another, so you might need to experiment with your setup a bit when creating your own models. We hope you’ll have fun joining in on the creation process!

Files

Assembling Work-Alike

Getting started assembling Work-Alike? Here’s what you’ll need:

plastic cutters
thick wire cutters
pliers
precision picks
plastic file set
pin vise
- 0.8 mm drill bit
- 1.5 mm drill bit
1.75 mm extruder cleaner wire (also called a “ramrod” or “cleaning rod”)
six nylon dowels (optionally you may use all metal dowels instead)
- 3/8″ by 1/16″
four steel or brass dowels (optionally you may use up to ten if you prefer all metal dowels rather than a combination of metal and nylon ones)
- 3/8″ by 1/16″
two cotter pins
aluminum tube stock
- .25” Outer Diameter (OD) and .18” Inner Diameter (ID)
- use hacksaw to cut the tube stock down to 1 x each 1-5/8″ and 3-5/8″ long segments
- Note: Inner diameter doesn’t affect fitment but will affect performance. A thinner wall thickness lessens the weight the model can lift.
hacksaw (use this to cut aluminum tube stock prior to assembly)
Optional: 16 oz of stick-on weights applied to the inside of the wrist casing after final assembly. This gives Work-Alike approximately the same weight as the original iron Kassel Hand.

The videos below walk through post-processing and assembling the components of the model. If desired, click on “CC” in the lower right of the video screen to turn on closed captions.

Part 1: Printing Work-Alike

Part 2: Post-Processing Work-Alike

Part 3: Assembling Work-Alike