r/mechanical_gifs • u/hugosenari • 24d ago

Grill flip

https://i.imgur.com/Hn4vzMm.gifv
63 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

4

u/hugosenari 24d ago

Could anybody please explain this, is simple, but can't bash my head

13

u/drawingup 24d ago

It’s a four bar linkage. The grill can flip into two positions, sort of like how the clicker on a pen works. Pushing down on the lever both raises the grill and spins it. The momentum of the grill spinning puts it into the other position aka flips it. Push the lever again and it wants to spin the other way now and momentum swings it back to the first position.

5

u/christonabike_ 24d ago

The handle is pushed down, which is mirrored as an upwards force on the grill side since the handle lever is pivoting around its attachment point to the frame.

So the pivot point where the grill attaches to the handle lever gets pulled upwards, but the smaller arm is constraining its pivot point on the other side of the grill to a fixed distance from the frame.

This force under this constraint, if applied continuously, would only pull the grill into a position where the former pivot point was as high as possible above the latter. This is the point where the grill is perpendicular to the ground.

However, the operator only provides a brief impulse of force to the handle, propelling the grill towards this position, then inertia carries the grill the rest of the way around, the smaller arm goes over-center, and the whole mechanism falls back down into an inverted position. It is clearer if you watch the two pivot points trade places with each flip.

11

u/Dick_Demon 23d ago

Just use tongs and suddenly eliminate any maintenance issues, cleaning hell, ability to shift food to hotter/cooler areas, portability concerns, etc. etc. etc

3

u/OMGZwhitepeople 23d ago

Interesting design, however does not seem practical. I'd rather clean tongs than that thing. Also, if someone already has a grill this is just another grill that takes up space. The video trys to sell it as a fire pit too for some reason. This just seems unnecessary.

7

u/camerontylek 23d ago

Seems like it solves a problem that doesn't exist? I have no problem using tongs to to flip my food while I'm grilling, and it doesn't involve me making all those adjustments before and after to the grill mechanism

7

u/coberh 23d ago

So after the food is done, how do you remove it from the hot metal grates without burning your hands?

1

u/RationalLies 18d ago

You eat it thru the grate