Locking Pot Gripper

A lightweight camping tool to save your wrists while grabbing hot pots.

For the class "Design and Manufacturing", I created a sheet metal tool to use while cooking in the wilderness. It works similar to other pot grippers, having teeth that grab the pot if it has no handle. Instead of requiring a constant gripping force, the user slides their thumb back to lock a pin in place with just friction. Then, they don't need to worry about squeezing, just lifting.

I was the sole maker for this project, from concept to execution. I used Solidworks for modelling, waterjet cutting for the sheet metal, a finger brake for bending, and a lathe to make the locking mechanism pin.