Vern Graner wrote an interesting article in the latest Nuts and Volts magazine that goes over some pneumatic basics. Best of all he interfaces the pneumatics to some electronics so that us electronic people can understand it. It’s so true that when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. I can think of lots of times that I would think the obvious solution was a servo motor but a pneumatic cylinder could have performed the job just as well. I think I will have to get some of these valves and cylinders to play with! Vern recommends Surplus Center as a good resource, I had a look and was very surprised at the prices. Some of the cylinders start at $5.00 which is cheaper than an entry level servo. Of course there will be other equipment needed, the most expensive being the air compressor.
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I used to have one of those extender claws when I was a kid! Ah, those were the days!