Slide Trigger

By Max

Task: Model a part that lets us hold back the slide with a trigger to release it

The beater bar mechanism was put on a slide so that we could restrain it until some point during the match, but we had yet to actually build a restraint and trigger to serve this purpose until now. Since the mechanism would likely include rubbing pieces and need customized parts, we chose to model and 3D print the part in nylon to minimize friction and allow for easy customization. The first version (seen below in PTC Creo) consists of 3 printed nylon parts, one being a restraint and the two others (the same model, printed twice) acting as the trigger, pushing up the restraint when pulled back by a string (or something similar) and allowing the slide to move forward.

Reflections

The mechanism generally works well, but the trigger will occasionally fail to push the restraint far enough for the slide to break free. This will need fixing at some point in the future with a new version for the trigger.