Thanks for all the help on this, it really got me thinking and learning more about Blender. I finally figured it out, and it was much simpler than I first thought. I didn’t end up using armatures at all. First, I created an empty to control everything. Then, I used the middle cross piece as the base, and I used applied Constraint->Copy Rotation (inverted rotation angle for one of them). Then by rotating the control empty I could open/close the middle scissor mechanism. Next I parented the pieces end-to-end from the outside on in to the base. Last, I copied the Copy Rotation constraint from the middle pieces to all the pieces that needed to rotate the same direction. The parent/child relationships kept the ends connected, and the Copy Rotation constraint rotated them all the same amount at the same time. I would post a short blend, but so far I’ve only figured out how to post pictures.
Thanks again,
Mike
