Maxwell 09/03/15

Maxwell is what happens when you need a place for your change at work and you have a big pile of junk in the garage. I changed offices at work, wound up with no change pocket in my new desk drawer and a pile change for the snack machine sitting on my desktop. Naturally my first thought was 'robot.' I mean who wouldn't think that right?

I started by rummaging around in my scrap metal bin. I found a few old coffee tins and a box of short goosenecks.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures before this point. I started with the drawer on the bottom where I put my change. You have to keep your eye on the ball, you know.

I really had no idea what I was doing. I had no plan. In fact at this point, I more or less got on the net and looked at robot pictures until I decided what direction to take.

Here's how the drawer works.

The shoulders came out pretty good I think. They are just a piece of scrap pipe cut in two, with a large washer welded on the end and a bolt going through the body, through the shoulder and held on by a wing nut. It makes the arm moveable.

The claws just have a bolt welded to the back and are threaded into a nut welded on the end of the gooseneck. This allows the claws to swivel and of course the goosenecks bend allowing for a lot of adjustability, which is good because one of them holds my wireless headphones.

The head is held on by magnets, so it is easy to change out for a different look and of course it provides more storage.

I hadn't intended to use it to hold my phone, otherwise I would have made the chest area bigger, but once I thought of it I made a little ledge for it to sit on, with a cutout for the charging cable. I decided not to paint it.

And that's Maxwell! He's named after James Clerk Maxwell, who's equations pay my bills.

Thanks for viewing.