Worm Robot - From a CDROM Drive Door Opening Mechanism

Here is a simple to make Worm robot from salvaged pieces of wood from a crate, and an old CDROM Drive door opening mechanism.

To build the simple worm bot which mimics the crawling mechanism you'll need basic soldering skills.But if you don't know to solder, no worries ! check out the awesome guide on How to Solder - by noahw .In addition you'll also need a basic wood working skills to salvage pieces of wood and drill holes for the screws to put all the parts together.

This robot is inspired from Simple Bots: Inchworm - by randofo .

Step 1: Thing You'll Need for the Build

Here are the things you'll need for your build

• Crate to salvage some wood
• Old CDROM drive to salvage the door opening mechanism
• 2 AA Battery Holder with a On/Off switch
• 2 AA batteries
• *Screws , this depends on the thickness of the wood you salvaged.
• Wheels , I had some circular wood disk from another project , but if you cant,improvise and use plastic coke bottle lids.

And the tools you'll need are

• Soldering Iron and solder
• Dremel 3000 with the following accessories to(use the drill/sanding tool of your choice)
  • Drill cutting bit
  • Sanding
• Chisel
• Saw
• Super Glue
• Hot glue
• pliers
• And don't forget to wear protective eye gear. Safety first!

*Tip: Before buying the screws,complete the ible till step 10 and then head to the hardware store with the two pieces of wood with the screw holes drilled..

Step 2: Salvage Wooden From a Crate

Start off by salvaging two wood pieces from a crate using a Chisel and a Saw.

You'll need at least two pieces of about 15 centimeter in length.

In my case I had a crate lying in my garage , which came with bulk load of small oranges from local store.And yes they were pretty expensive!!

Step 3: Salvage CDROM Door Opening Mechanism

To salvage the CDROM door opening mechanism , unscrew the 4 screws on the lid and pop it off.

Now you should see a couple of screws attaching the PCB, unscrew them and using scissors cut of the white cables as shown in the picture above. Put the PCB aside and turn the CD drive over to test the door opening mechanism.

Step 4: Test to Check If the Gear Motor Mechanism and Desolder the Pump

Have your toe fingers crossed !! and test the door opening mechanism as shown in the video above by moving the tray up and down, ensure that the gears and the pulley mechanism move freely.

Now if your mechanism is functional, remove the CDROM tray by unlocking a couple of hinges at the side.

Once done,fire up your soldering Iron and desolder the motor from the PCB at the two points as marked in the third picture above. In my case i managed to break the PCB while trying to pull it out.

Step 5: Saw Out the Door Opening Mechanism

Now using a saw , cut through the plastic just above the CD door locking mechanism and the joint at the side as shown in the picture above.

Be patient !! and Ensure that you do not damage the other components as you can build more awesome things out of the other components..

Step 6: Solder the Battery Holder to the Motor and Give It a Test

At this point if your new to Soldering , it would be a good idea to go through the ible - How to Solder - by noahw

Here start of by tinning the wires of the battery holder. Then solder the battery holder wires to the motor as shown in the picture above. Once you have soldering is done , load up the 2AA batteries in the battery holder and flip the switch to on give it a quick test to check if the gear and pulley mechanism is rotating.

Step 7: Mark and Saw the Slots for the CDROM Drive Door Opening Mechanism on the Pallet

Place the CDROM Drive door opening mechanism drive opening mechanism at the side of the piece of wood your cut from a crate in step 2 and using a pencil mark a slot where the motor will fit

Now using a saw cut the pieces as shown in the picture above and then using a chisel remove the piece of wood at the center.

Step 8: Mark and Drill Holes for Screws

Using a pencil mark the point to drill the holes into.

Here you'll need a hole about 1.5 centimeter from the edge of the piece of wood which will act as a connector for the two pices of wood.

And another at the bottom about 1 centimeter from the edge to attach the wheels.

Attach the drill bit to the dremel or the drill tool of your choice and drill the holes.

Step 9: Add Finishing Touches to the Pieces

To give some awesome finishing touches to the piece of wood saw the edges as shown in the first picture

And then using a sanding tool in my case the go to toll for small pieces of wood is the Dremel 300 with the sanding bit to smooth out the edges.

Step 10: Glue the CDROM Drive Mechanism and the Battery Holder

Now hot glue the CDROM door drive mechanism to the piece of wood you had cut in the center.Here have the motor wires sticking out as shown in the second picture.

Press and hold the CDROM door drive mechanism for a couple minutes and then use hotglue at the back where a slot was initially cut as shown in the second picture above.

Hot glue to battery holder to the other piece of wood.

Step 11: Adding Screws

Add small screw and nut at the top, don't tighten this nut completely. We need this part to be moving , if you think there is to much friction between the two wood pieces adding a washer should help.

Add the screws to the wheels at the bottom of both the pieces of wood as shown in the third picture, and then secure this with some hot glue to prevent the wheels and screw joint from moving.

Step 12: Cut a Piece of Wire

Cut a piece a wire and bend it 90 degree twice as shown in the first picture, you'll need this piece of wire in the next step to attach to big gear.

Now cut another piece of wire as shown in the second picture and curl both the ends of the wire one to go into the wire above and the other to attach to the screws.

Step 13: Super Glue the Wire to the Gear

Remove the belt, and the two gears from the door opening mechanism.

Using super glue, glue the wire to the big gear and wait for about 30 minutes till the super glue dries off.

Add some hot glue at the top for more strength.

Now add the second piece of wire to gear and the other to the screw and tightly attach two nuts as shown in the picture above.

Congratulations your have successfully build the Worm bot !! Now when you fell bored at your study table you now have something to keep you entertained...