Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists

3Screw It or Glue It: Fastening and Joining Parts

When you first build a project—whether it’s for your home, an art installation, or a robot competition—something always goes wrong. Sometimes the cause is dead batteries, broken connections, or a dog using your project as a chew toy. But the problem I see most often is the use of inappropriate materials and fasteners that don’t hold up over the course of your mechanism’s intended lifetime.

Usually, your mechanical devices will have a base, a skeleton, or some other kind of central structure that will need to be put together. Knowing how to do this efficiently will save many headaches later on. There are two main ways to join components to each other: nonpermanent joints and permanent joints. ...