Page 63 - Robot Builder's Bonanza

32 GETTING PARTS

In my experience, many hobby store owners and salespeople are not up to speed on using
their products in robotic applications. Your best bet is to browse the store and look for parts
that you can put together to build a robot. Some of the parts, particularly those for R/C mod-
els, will be behind a counter, but they should still be visible enough for you to conceptualize
how you might use them.
If you don’t have a well- stocked hobby store in your area, there’s always mail order through
the Internet. Here are a few of the larger eHobby outlets:

Hobby Lobby: www.hobbylobby.com
Hobby People: www.hobbypeople.net
Horizon Hobby: www.horizonhobby.com
Tower Hobbies: www.towerhobbies.com

Craft Stores

Craft stores sell supplies for home crafts and arts. As a robot builder, you’ll be interested in
some of the aisles with:

• Foam rubber sheets. These come in various colors and thicknesses and can be used for
pads, bumpers, nonslip surfaces, tank treads, and lots more. The foam is very dense; use
a sharp scissors or knife to cut it (I like to use a rotary paper cutter to get a nice, straight
cut).
• Foamboard. Constructed of foam sandwiched between two heavy sheets of paper, foam-
board can be used for small, lightweight robots. Foamboard can be cut with a hobby knife
and glued with paper glue or hot- melt glue. Look for it in different colors and thicknesses.
• Parts from dolls and teddy bears. These can often be used in robots. Fancier dolls use
something called armatures— movable and adjustable joints— that can be applied to your
robot creations. Look also for linkages, bendable posing wire, and eyes (great for building
robots with personality!).
• Electronic light and sound buttons. These are designed to make Christmas ornaments
and custom greeting cards, but they work just as well in robots. Electric light kits come with
low- voltage LEDs or incandescent lights, often in several bright colors. Some flash at ran-
dom, some in sequence. Sound buttons have a built- in song that plays when you depress a
switch. You could use these buttons as touch sensors, for example, or as a “tummy switch”
in an animal- like robot.
• Plastic crafts construction material. This can be used in lieu of more expensive building
kits. For example, many stores carry the plastic equivalent of that old favorite, the Popsicle
stick. (You can also get the original wooden ones, but they aren’t as strong.) The plastic
sticks have notches in them so they can be assembled to create frames and structures.
• Model- building supplies. Many craft stores have these, sometimes at lower prices than the
average hobby- model store. Look for assortments of wood and metal pieces, adhesives,
and construction tools.

There are, of course, many other interesting products of interest at craft stores. Visit one
and take a stroll down its aisles. Don’t have a craft store nearby? There are plenty online. See
Appendix B, “Internet Parts Sources,” for several of the larger outlets.

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