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Gripper Pad Part
1
Gripper Pad
(part two)
By Agostino Roncallo
In the previous
article I have made known the gripper pad and,
as such, I proposed the imitation of the caterpillar. I think you'll be
interested to know that this imitation can also be obtained with
materials other than Gripper pad. In the stores of plastic materials it
is easy to find rolls of synthetic mat which I think is destined to
perform the same function of the gripper pad, but big. You can buy the
length that you want because it is sold per meter.
I remember that I bought the
synthetic mat for to glue it in the bottom of plastic boxes of
chocolates for creating mini display for my flies. If you cut to the right
(see photo), you get streaks of legs for the caterpillar. The only
drawback is that you get legs suitable for constructing imitations of
medium and large, are not good for small ones. Fore making the legs fit
for imitation, large, medium and small, need to get some sheets of
plastic in stationery.
With a punching pliers (found it
in shops of leather: used to make holes in leather, such as the belts),
holes are bored on the sidelines of a plastic sheet, spaced apart, then
delete the small portion of material that is on the edge of the sheet,
including one hole to another. The diameter of the holes and the
distance between one and another will determine the size of the legs of
the caterpillar.
At this point, with a cut lengthwise
over the holes, you get a sequence of legs similar to that obtained by
cutting the gripper pads (see photo). For this reason, also with this
type of legs, the procedure for obtaining the caterpillar is that
described in the previous article, then designs
and how to build an imitation are the same.
Text and
photos by Agostino Roncallo © 2010
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