Hey all,

Just wante to share my progress on a repstrapped Darwin. I have used (FSC approved) hard-wood to construct the corner brackets and the thing actually seems to fit together and not fall apart. Considering the accuracy of my tools and the wood, a bit of a surprise... hard wood seems to work, though there appear some cracks in some corners. Attached a picture of the device so far. Next step is attaching the diagonals so it is a little it more sturdy.

Joost

fantastic! this is really exciting. keep up the good work.

Looks great, Joost!

Ok, I can't help myself anymore..

Joost wonderful!

From what I can see you didn't use trapped screws. Is that right?

Hey Nathan,

No, I did not. What I did was:
- cut approx. 33 mm high blocks from an approx. 44x44mm wood beam
- drilled 4 8.5mm through holes for the vertical posts
- drilled 2 8.5mm through holes for the horizontal rods
- drilled 4 2mm through holes for tiny 3mm torx wood screws (blunted the tip) to constrain the vertical rods
- drilled 1 2mm through hole in the center to constrain the horizontal rods using the same type of torx screw

Although this works, the wood is not really strong enough and easily splinters. I have now added the cross bars and used a square 20x20mm aluminium tube (drilled 2 8.5mm through holes and tapped an M5 for constraining the rods) and this actually holds it all together very well. I will post an update later this weekend with some images attached.

Joost