Wooden kinetic sculpture that simulates the motion of a hummingbird in flight

Derek Hugger recent wrote to let us know about his latest creation.

Derek Hugger writes:

Thought I'd share my latest and greatest with you. Colibri is a wooden kinetic sculpture that simulates the motion of a hummingbird in flight. Every element of motion has been completely mechanized, from the beating wings to the flaring tail. Intricate systems of linkages and cams bring the sculpture to life with a continuous flow of meticulously timed articulations. As each mechanism has been linked to the next, Colibri cycles through its complete range of motions by the simple turn of a crank. This project took me roughly 700 hours and contains about 400 parts.

Amazing work. Just amazing.

Woodworking plans for this project are available are here: www.derekhugger.com/colibri.html

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Paper automaton kit reveals why there are no magical fairies in the world

This new automaton from cool4cats titled A Tasty Snack explains why there are no fairies left. It would appear that the carnivorous plants have taken care of them all.

An interesting feature of the model is some gearing which is similar to the hour/minute hand arrangement of a clock. In this configuration, both hands rotate on the same spindle so they display on the same dial. In clock, the gears have a 12:1 ratio -- converting the hourly rotation of the minute hand into a 12th of a rotation for the hour hand. In this automaton, they have used a 4:1 ratio. It also looks as if they've used a paper belt drive. Very clever!

Here is where you can get the A Tasty Snack paper automaton kit.

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Cutting wooden gears with a jigsaw and a simple homemade setup

The ever industrious Matthias Wandel has uploaded a great video showing how to cut wooden gears with a jigsaw mounted in an easy-to-make fixture. Admittedly, a band saw or scroll saw is a bit better suited to this task because they can cut curves so well. Nevertheless, he achieves good results with the jig saw and his homemade setup.

Here is the page in his web site with detailed photos showing the process of cutting wood gears with a jigsaw.

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Paper indexing mechanism by Rob Ives -- download and make one!

Rob Ives continues to create amazing paper machines and automata. Recently he's created this indexing mechanism.

From the creator's web site:

An indexing mechanism or intermittent drive is a mechanism that turns a wheel or shaft a small amount then stops for a set amount of time the turns again repeating this process over and over as the drive handle is turned.

Indexers are used for all sorts of things including digital displays when a sequential number can be displayed or in machines used to cut gear teeth.

This paper indexer has a twenty four tooth drive wheel. It takes twenty four full turns of the handle for the geared wheel to make one full turn. Download and make this model to find out first hand just how an indexer works. Use it as an exercise in pure mechanism or as the starting point for your own designs.

You can download and make this paper indexing mechanism. It will cost you £2.50 (about $3.90). Well worth it, I would say.

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A gear-driven wooden machine creates intricate swirl drawings

Do any of you out there remember the Spirograph drawing toy? The "Cycloid Drawing Machine" shown in the video is like its cooler big brother. Various wooden gear and linkage combinations are used to produce a huge array of different drawings.

The drawings are also kind of a neat way to study the output motion resulting from different gear and linkage combinations. I love that it is hand-cranked. The machine is all wood and looks to be very well made.

The Cycloid Drawing Machine is currently a Kickstarter project seeking funding. There are two funding reward levels, both of which get the backer one of these nifty machines. Here is the Kickstarter page for Cycloid Drawing Machine.

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Gear generator tool allows you to design full gear trains and see them in action!

This new online Gear Generator tool can be used to simulate sets of spur gears. You can plug in all kinds of a parameters, and then animate the gears at various speed to demonstrate working mechanism. You can also download the final results in SVG format. The tool allows you compose full gear layouts with connected gears to design multiple gears system with control of the input/output ratio and rotation speed. The gears are of the involute type which is what most of the world wants -- except perhaps for the clockmakers. This tool is fantastically useful and very well designed too!

Here is where you can check out and use the free online Gear Generator tool.

To learn more about gear design, check out these great reference books such as Dudley's Handbook of Practical Gear Design and Manufacture, which provides comprehensive information on the design and manufacture of gears for the expert and novice alike. Topics include: Gear Types and Nomenclature, Gear Tooth Design, Gear Reactions and Mountings, Gear Vibration, and The Evolution of the Gear Art.

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Video showing the process of making of pinwheel gears for a kinetic sculpture

Doppio Espresso Dance from aaron kramer artist on Vimeo.

Artist Aaron Kramer created this great video in which he shows us the inner workings of one of his kinetic sculptures. Along the way, we learn a lot about how to make a set of pinwheel gears.

From Aaron Kramer:

I had always wanted to make a piece that contained a pinwheel gear made from wood and metal. These gears are the kind you would find on an old windmill. They seem pretty simple but are tough to get right. Starting with the tin can base and half an idea I first needed to make a set of working gears. I used Adobe Illustrator to generate my own templates. Transferred them to wood disks that I cut with a hole saw.

The method using Adobe Illustrator is covered in Cabaret Mechanical Movement: Understanding Movement and Making Automata.

If you don't happen to have Adobe Illustrator, you can also use an online gear template generator. I explain that process in an article on Making Pinwheels Patterns.

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Gear boxes, motors, vehicles and track drives from Tamiya

The Tamiya company produces a whole line of interesting mechanical components for model makers. These can be really useful for understanding key concepts better -- gear ratios, worm gears, and drive trains. Better still, they can integrated directly into your mechanical projects. Here are a few of my favorites:

Tamiya Tracked Vehicle Chassis Kit
Use this kit as a stand-alone or combine it with other accessories making a more complex machine with more capabilities. The gear box can be built with two possible gear ratios-Standard: 203.7:1 or High Speed 58.2:1. The motor is included.

Tamiya Planetary Gear Box Set
The Planetary Gear Set from Tamiya features a highly versatile system for reduction of high RPM electric motors to high-torque low RPM applications. RC-260 motor operates on 3 volts. Combining the gearboxes in various ways enables 8 different gear ratios -- 4:1, 5:1, 16:1, 20:1, 25:1, 80:1, 100:1, and 400:1.

Tamiya 70168 Double Gearbox L/R Independent 4-Speed
Suitable for use with remote controlled robots. Left/right independent design means you can set different gear ratios for either side. This set can be assembled for 1 of 4 different gear ratios -- 12.7: 1, 38.2:1, 114.7:1, and 344.2:1

Tamiya 72008 4-Speed Worm Gearbox H.E.
The gearbox features four gear ratios (84:1, 216:1, 555.4:1, 1428.2:1). The gear ratio can be easily adjusted by altering the middle and final gear attachment positions.

Tamiya 4WD Chassis Kit
The 4WD Chassis incorporates a four-wheel shaft-drive system similar to those in full size 4WD vehicles. A hex shaft transfers power from the center gear box to the outer gear box giving 4WD power.

Here's a full line of tools, materials, and kits offered by Tamiya.

[ Thanks Mike! ]

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Butterfly Effect -- a kinetic sculpture by Brett Dickins,

Here's the latest sculture from Brett Dickins, this one titled Butterfly Effect.

From the video description:

One off wooden/polished aluminum gear sculpture featuring a mechanical butterfly which takes a different flight path on each revolution of the main gear. Other features include small gears on the body of the butterfly which rotate, and the introduction of polished metals as a new material in my work.

Here is where you can see unedited footage of the Butterfly Effect sculpture

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Mechanical Principles - a film of mechanical movements in action

Check out this fascinating 10 minute segment of a longer piece by Ralph Steiner featuring classic mechanical movements. Many of these mechanisms can be found in the book 507 Mechanical Movements as well as the larger, but similar 1800 Mechanical Movements, Devices and Appliances.

Some interesting movements shown in the film include:
 • Counter mechanism
 • Gears engage on diagonals
 • Square gears
 • Variable speed transfer
 • Rotary to linear action with a 4 tooth cog

Here is a page on Amazon listing lots of great books on mechanical movements. Also known as "the list of awesome".

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Squirrel! -- a mechanical dog head sculpture by Dave Johnson

Dave Johnson has done it again with this fascinating mechanical dog head. Check out the action of the on-demand attention button. It's like hand-cranked animatronics!

The dog's head is capable of movement in four directions including side-to-side, up and down, the jaw, and the ears. Each movement is conveyed via pushrod. The pushrods sit on contoured cams, which are driven by a set of gears.

From the video description:

This machine is yet another attempt to get random(ish) movement from a decidedly non-random hand crank. The 4 gear pairs that drive the cams have slightly different gear ratios, so it takes something like 100 turns of the crank before the whole sequence repeats. The ear and jaw movements are also dependent on the current yaw and pitch position, so the result is a semi-random mishmash of movement. When the Big Red Button (BRB) is pushed, it lowers the cams out of the way, and the head falls into Squirrel! position.

Johnson has very cleverly integrated a bellows on the front of the machine. The moving air serves to soften the motion of the head after the red button is released. That's a very nice subtlety that most people wouldn't notice. But watch again and imagine if that wasn't there.

Here is where you can see still photos of Dave Johnson's Squirrel!

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The repair and restoration repair of an automaton bear by Brittany Cox

Check out this fascinating blog entry in which we see the various steps that Brittany Cox took to repair and restore a clockwork automaton bear. I would never have expected Tyvek to be involved!

Here is where you can read the post titled Sir Kingslydale the Automaton Bear.

[ Thanks Kim and Brittany! ]

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5 categories of mechanical toy deals for the holiday season

As you all know, the holidays are upon us. I did some looking around on Amazon to find out where good deals could be found on mechanical toys for young and old. Here's a quick look.

Deal List 1 - Metal Construction Sets

While supplies last, you can save up to 40% on certain Erector Sets. Here is a link to the Erector Sets on sale now. Here is a bigger list of Metal Construction Sets including additional brands.

Deal List 2 - RC Figures & Robots

There are 444 different radio-controlled and robot toys on sale now, including the Battroborgs boxing robots. They look like they are a blast! Here is a link to the RC Figures & Robots on sale.

Deal List 3 - Toys with Gears

You want gears? They've got them! I found over 500 different toys listed in this section. Check out the Gear-themed toys

Deal List 4 - Hobby Tools and Hardware

Want to make something? You'll need the tools and supplies. I found a link to all of the Hobby Building Tools & Hardware currently on sale and it's an impressive list!

Deal List 5 - Quad Copters

I found 160 multi-rotor remote controlled toys for sale! These this have (ahem...) taken off, so to speak. Check out the wild assortment of Quad Copters on sale now. This AR.Drone 2.0 Quadricopter is not on sale, but man does it look awesome.

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Book on the 'Theory of Machines and Mechanisms' for the serious student

Time to take your engineering knowledge up a notch? Check out this book I discovered on Amazon the other day. For the non-professional engineer it may be a little weighty, but boy...it's all there! (This fourth edition is aimed at senior undergraduate or graduate students in mechanical engineering.)

Theory of Machines and Mechanisms covers the study of displacements, velocities, accelerations, and static and dynamic forces required for the proper design of mechanical linkages, cams, and geared systems. The authors present the background, notation, and nomenclature essential for students to understand the various independent technical approaches that exist in the field of mechanisms, kinematics, and dynamics.

The book includes a CD with working model animations of many figures from the text to help students visualize and comprehend their movement. A companion website for instructors provides additional information and resources, including PowerPoint-based slides of figures from the text.

Here is where you can get Theory of Machines and Mechanisms

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