The Cube

Hello. Here are some photographs of things I have been doing recently, accompanied by a bit of text describing each photo

I have been experimenting with mechanisms which can raise a wooden cube, for my first donation box automata thing. A cube has to rise and rotate at the same time and then pause when it reaches the top and then come down again. I first tried a scissor lift design. It had potential but I couldn't work out how to get the cube on top to rotate at the same time.

My next idea was to have a block which the cube would sit in (via a brass rod).  I purchased Matthias Wandel's gear generator programme (highly recommended) and made a rack and gear to see about ways to raise and lower the block. Imagine this photo rotated 90 degrees clockwise and that the gear is lifting and lowering the piece of wood.

The start of my frame to test out the mechanism

I made a hole in the top to allow access for the cube. I tried to use Pythagoras'  theorem to calculate the size of the hole but I messed this up as I was thinking of the distance between 2 points in a square in 2d. I wasn't thinking about the largest distance between 2 points in 3d cube (silly me).

Gluing the cube

A cube

The cube mounted in it's block. The idea is to have a pin wheel gear sat horizontally underneath the cube and another pin wheel will be mounted to the side of the block with a pulley. The pulley will have a length of cord with a weight attached to it. As the block rises, the weight of the pulley will (hopefully) turn the pin wheels which will allow the cube to rotate. I have a feeling I have made this overly complicated. 

The block will have some tubes attached which will have guide rods inserted into, which will give the rising block a path to follow (up and down)

I settled for this design. The point in the middle of the block allows the rod to slide up and down. This allows it to move the block up and down. I tried it before as a fixed point on the block but it kept on wanting to move in an arc (like a compass).

Now I need to find a way to move it up and down and make it pause. I am thinking of a large wheel and a lock mechanism but will need to pro-type. I am also thinking about using pulleys but am not sure how to incorporate this. 

I am concerned that I am going about this in a really poor way. I'm not sure who reads this blog but if you have any ideas or think that I am going about this the wrong way, please let me know. I don't want to spend too long as I am making it in order to help raise money for an arts centre. The sooner it is completed, the better.

Bristol Mini Maker Faire

The first Bristol Mini Maker Faire was held yesterday and it went down very well for all involved. The local Bristol Hack Space was pretty cool and I enjoyed the 3d printer they had (I'd love to get one of those. Gears would be so easy!)

I was overwhelmed with kids and their parents trying my models. I had a couple break through overuse. A couple also had trouble due to the heat in the room (no open windows) so the wood expanded in some cases but it was still pretty good. Here are some pics of the models I made. Foolishly I forgot to bring my camera to the event and my phone camera is broken. (sigh)

The dog I made. Opens its mouth and wags it's tail. Uses a push rod and swash plate

The mechanism push a lever which moves the push rod for the mouth. 

A model of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who created a few engineering marvels in Bristol. Seen here are the SS Great Britain and the Clifton suspension Bridge. One little girl asked why I made him so sad. He does look like a bit of an undertaker

A simple friction wheel set up with a couple of offset cams moves the head left and right. 

You can see the gear I used. It moves the wheels veeerrry slowly, a lot of people actually thought it was broken. A lot of effort for very little reward, so not a great success for the audience. A lot of people wanted the bridge and the ship to do something. Maybe I'll re-visit it. 

My name badge.

I had just enough time to make one more model out of some scrap wood I had left. I wanted to use my spiral worm gear. 

It operates a simple snail cam which pushed a little block with  a pair of eyes I drew on it. This  was my favourite model of the fair. Mainly because of the spiral gear. 

I gave loads of business cards out so hopefully that might inspire some people to have a look at this blog. I hope people enjoyed the fair. 

For now I'm gonna take a few days off and then plan my next model. I think the next one will be for charity. More to follow. 

Moustache previewing machine

This is the present I made for my friend. I foolishly forgot to film it

 Here is shameless attempt to ingratiate myself with the maker faire crew. (Nice one!)

Here is the workbench/desk I built

Here are some gears for people to play with at Maker Faire

Here is a dog I have started working on. It'll have a wagging tail and a mouth which opens and closes.

 One week to go and 3 more models to make. More pics to follow

Congratulations!

Dear Tony,

We are happy to inform you that your application for Mini Maker Faire Bristol, Amateur Automata Maker, has been accepted. We're looking forward to having you participate in the 1st Mini Maker Faire Bristol on the 23 March, 2013 at M Shed Bristol between 10:00am and 4:00pm. 

Please prepare for your exhibit. We will provide a standard setup, which includes a standard banquet table and two chairs. We ask that you bring all other items required for your exhibit. If you need something different, and you indicated so in your entry, we may contact you to discuss these details. We will also provide a small sign for your exhibit. We encourage you to think about ways to design your exhibit and to make it interactive and fun. If you have any questions about your exhibit or changes to it, please email us at ************************
Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you at Maker Faire!

Mini Maker Faire Bristol Team

Very happy but I seem to keep putting deadlines/pressure onto myself. Well, sometimes a deadline can be a good thing I guess.

Anyway, time to plan.

Photos of recent exploits

As I mentioned, here are some pics of things I have been getting on with. I will shelve this project for another day and return to it. I am thinking a rack and pinion gearing system might be a good mechanism to try. If I can't get it to work at least it'll be good experience. 

Close up of the mechanism with the main pin wheel gear

Reverse view

My initial mechanism with pin wheels on half of the gear. It nearly worked but if I turned the wheel too fast, the centre wheel would have built up some inertia and would continue moving around. I wanted it to turn exactly 180 degrees each time. 

A new mechanism I was trying. There would be an offset cam which which push the lever up and down. The lever would have a rod sticking up out of the end of it which would lift the friction wheel up, disengaging it from the main drive friction wheel. This model also nearly worked but didn't quite make it. 

A close up of the "newer" mechanism

A present for my friend

The hearts for the cupid model

My friends present. I scrapped this configuration

I decided to make a makeshift sanding table to lay parts on to get a perfect 90 degree angle. It requires a bit of work

With the sanding attachment

This is a luthier clamp I made out of mdf and pine (I'm going to build my own guitar, amateur guitar maker blog to follow). It's not the best example but all of the videos I saw on Youtube involved them being made out of mahogany and I am too poor for that. I might try plywood but I think that would probably snap easily.

Another view of the clamp

For my friend's present I decided to try using papier mache. This is the plasticine mould

Newspaper layer

Finished

The re-done mechanism. Hopefully this will work out better. I have a few other bits to attach.  

Sorry it's a bit of a dull one. I'll try harder next time. 

fail...

Well, I didn't finish the model on time but that's OK. I didn't like putting the pressure on myself. The whole mechanism needs re-working so I'm going to leave it for a while. Besides, I recently split with a girl I was seeing so I don't really feel like working on a Valentine's model. 

Time to do some fun stuff. Sorry for the lack of pics recently. I will get on it at the weekend.

Maker Faire Bristol

Well this is exciting! A Maker Faire is coming to my home town. I've always wanted to attend. I've applied for a stall, although it won't be much. In any event I'll be there even if I fail in my submission. It's on the 23rd March at the M Shed.

In other news, work on the Valentine's model is coming along slowly, so slow that I won't have it made in time for Valentine's day. This has led me to make a decision that I won't be making any more themed work as I hate to put pressure on myself. When it's done, it's done. 

Some pics to follow of the things I've been up to.