Mechanical spider walking machine walks for the first time!

This is a project that my wife and I worked on with a friend. We machined all of the pivot points among other components. The pilot is the owner of the machine. It is powered by a Chevy 454 and backed by a TH400 trans. The crank shaft of the machine is composed of a Rockwell military rear end and many machined and welded parts. There is more ball bearings in the linkage than I can count. At the end, the 6 grade 8 bolts, that hold it together sheared and now, we redesigning the crank. We also need to lower the gear ratio for easier starts. If we can get this project finished in the next 5 weeks, it will be at Burning man.

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Tags:

• Walking
• machine
• art
• car
• 454
• Chevy
• TH400
• Burning
• man
• Rockwell
• rear
• end
• custom
• machining
• welding
• project
• cnc
• plasma

[frankensteinmoneymac]

Holy crap that thing sounds like a monster!!!!!! Youve got a bit of an evil scientist in you dont you! Yeah I know, me too. I do little things like electrokinetic lifters and such. Making a walking machine powered by a Chevy enginge though........Thats just plain manly as hell! Im inspired....Im gonna start working on a high voltage power source powered by a V8 to power my lifer now. Or maybe make a pnuematic powered pogo stick or something........Gotta do some planning..........

[gmbo6969]

HA HA HA! Yeah! Just do it!! Thanks!

[ripplesouth]

it appears this machine has alot of internal binding, and is clumsy and inefficient. takes a lot of gas to go 2 feet. What has this been speed tested yet?

[gmbo6969]

No, there is no binding, but heavy loads that need to be lifted. In this video, the gearing was to high and yes, it was inefficient. After installing gear reduction boxes, it is 1000 times better. After the gearing was corrected, there was problems with strength in the large crankshaft. It has since been redesigned.

[Megatronmrs]

Pretty impressive dude.

[gmbo6969]

Thanks!

[Xeransystor]

`never mind. if found it

[Xeransystor]

when it is done? any video of this fast running?

[skinchen]

KICK ASS!!! I so wanna learn how to do that ...any tips?

[ripplesouth]

to be useful at high speeds it will need to have shocks at each leg to prevent stress fractures at the legs.