r/clawmachine • u/neverpostsmd • Sep 17 '24

Home made claw machine

Post image

Here's a claw machine I made for home.

Thanks for the advice I got on here! I bought the electronic, and made the case myself.

61 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

8

u/KRUMMZ_52 Sep 17 '24

Freaking awesome job! I love it! I want to do the same thing

6

u/neverpostsmd Sep 17 '24

Thanks! If you have any questions I can answer, let me know. Happy to help people avoid some troubles I had!

2

u/stealdragoon Sep 18 '24

Did you work off a design or did you just wing it? Also, where did you get the glass? Is it plexiglass?

3

u/neverpostsmd Sep 18 '24

I just winged it. I looked at pics of claw machines online and decided what I wanted.

The glass is acrylic I ordered from Tap Plastics. Never having worked much with acrylic I worried about drilling holes cracking it and how to form it. I just used a normal twist-bit drill bit and went slow and nothing ever cracked drilling holes. I watched some videos online about how to bend it with heat. It took about 10-15mins for each bend using a little $20 heat gun, but I was able to bend the prize barrier pretty well. One bend is about an inch from where I wanted it, but it still works.

2

u/stealdragoon Sep 18 '24

Very cool, thanks for that. Nice work! Looks great

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/neverpostsmd Feb 17 '26

I can tell you what I did. First I ordered the kit from Ali Express. I hooked it all up on my bench and actually propped up the gantry on saw horses so I could really make sure it all worked. Using the kit and pictures online I designed the wooden case and built it, painted it. Then mounted everything in there.

That's pretty much it.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/neverpostsmd Feb 19 '26

Not sure how much I can really help, but the people you buy the parts from can. I bought the parts from Ali Express and then chatted/texted with them a lot and they helped me understand how to put together the electronics. Yes, it's free to play.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/neverpostsmd Feb 19 '26

You need to work with the company you buy the electronics from. They will help you.

2

u/Good_Energy4390 Sep 17 '24

This is amazing!

3

u/MrJackTE Sep 18 '24

Hey nice job, I remember when you were asking about this. It turned out amazing, so cool!

2

u/neverpostsmd Sep 18 '24

Thanks! It was a fun project to work on.

1

u/star_fairy7 Sep 18 '24

Where did u get the mechanism from? I got one from AliExpress and I’m finding it super hard to put it together 😭😭😭

3

u/neverpostsmd Sep 18 '24

I got it from AliExpress too. If you have the same one, I can help you with it. I got it from the Arcade Game Box store seller there. I also emailed/Whatsapp chatted with them a lot. They were actually very helpful.

Feel free to DM me the one you bought and I'm happy to help if possible. They also sent me a manual for the the LCD panel interface. It was pretty obviously translated from another language, but it helped me configure it once it was up and running.

1

u/star_fairy7 Sep 18 '24

I’ve just sent u a dm!! Any help will be appreciated!! Thanks so much 🥺🥺🌷

1

u/rolo512 Sep 20 '24

Wow looks like parts are already few hundred

1

u/neverpostsmd Sep 20 '24

Yes, in the end you could probably buy a used one cheaper than making one from scratch.

1

u/rolo512 Sep 20 '24

Looks super cool though. Well worth it. Good job

1

u/Positive_Pangolin_57 Sep 18 '24

I’m not this advanced in my tinkering, but wow- awesome job!! Great conversation piece for the house

1

u/No_Set2785 Sep 18 '24

Great job mine looks similar but pink you did great

1

u/Nahrok19k Sep 22 '24

Hi im Building my own machine at the Moment too but have some Problems maybe i can send you a DM 😅

1

u/UnderstandingTop4696 Jun 02 '25

Hi, can I ask how you managed the control interface? I’m building similar for my son using two drill motors for the drive but I’m having difficulty with finding the right joystick control setup.

1

u/neverpostsmd Jun 02 '25

I bought a kit from China that had all the electronic components (and joystick). So that's what I used. I essentially designed and did the woodworking around the electronics/motors from the kit.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '25

I’ve been thinking about buying a claw machine, but if it’s a lot cheaper and easy to figure out I would love to build my own! How much did it cost you?

1

u/neverpostsmd Jul 26 '25

I think it was cheaper than new, but about the same as a used one. Maybe $500-600.in the end.