On Sat, 07 Apr 2007 10:29:48 -0700, charlieb
wrote:
| |
| ___ | LID
/ / \ |
+--+ +--+ Inside of Piece
Ball +---+
+--+( ) | |
\ \___/ | BOX
| |
That's the one I was describing.
Now you've got me thinking about bearings. You can get "guide
bearings" for router bits, Why not make a piece with spinning
disks between the Top and the Bottom . Center shaft on dowel
attached to the Lid, disks pressed onto the outside of the bearing.
The owner could rearrange the disks to form different patterns.
Add "springy" mounted "vanes" to catch the wind and have them
spin horizontaly. Depending on how the vanes were orientated
on each disk you cuold get a turbine effect - air flow from one
blowing down onto the next.
Why not? Well, because that's an awfully expensive way to do that!
I would think that nylon washers from any given hardware store would
be plenty, and allow you to have a little more control over the size
of the dowel you were using.
OR - use them like a safe's tumblers for some kind of puzzle box
locking mechanism.
Take a look at this, if you're interested in that-
http://home.howstuffworks.com/inside-lock.htm
It should give you some good ideas. (That's an awfully neat site
overall, really- a little light on details, but excellent for getting
the gears turning.)
MAGNETS! You can buy rare earth disk magnets. Mount opposite
polarities - one in the bottom of the foot of a piece, the other
in a hole in the base under the piece with some sort of lip to
contain horizontal movement while allowing rotation and some
tipping / rocking. No friction so nothing to slow down rotation.
So many possible ways to get actual movement and yet most
turnings are STATIC. Why?
That's an easy one- lack of need, motivation, or imagination. Since
most guys who engage in a hobby like this are rarely guilty of the
second two, I'd guess most just aren't that concerned about adding
movement to the pieces. Ocassionaly, there's a little bit of elitist
behavior in craft and trade work as well, as you've no doubt noticed.
If it doesn't fit the general scheme what they've seen in a museum or
gallery, some guys won't bother with it. (Though that does not seem to
ring very true for most of the regular posters on this particular
group.)
There is also a big mental "gap" (for lack of a better term) between
thinking about making an object that is stationary and one that has
moving parts. I found that one out firsthand as I have been building
my metal lathe- while the individual parts are all relatively simple
(The most complex machining op I've had to do is mill two slots for
feed screws,) the guys I work with seem to think the project is
something so difficult that no one should even consider attempting it.
Kind of funny when you think about it, considering we make parts that
will be moving when they're installed by the customer all day long-
they're just not accustomed to assembling things, I guess.
More ideas for ways to add actual movement to a piece?
If you're looking to add a little flatwork as well, the addition of
cams can make some amazing little toys. I know you've seen the
wind-powered lawn decorations that feature a wooden puppet sawing a
log at least once (Or at least, I hope you have- they used to be all
over the place, but I haven't seen one in a while.)
There are also plans availible for crafting wooden clocks. While I
believe those are intended for scroll sawyers, a guy with a lathe
could turn the gear blanks and then hob wooden gears with a cutter
mounted in a drill chuck in the spindle and a shop-made dividing head-
it's not as hard as it may sound, if you've got a protractor and a
drill press. (One day I'm going to take some time out from everything
else and make myself one of those clocks- they're awfully neat.
Especially if you made each gear from a different piece of exotic
scrap and left them exposed!)
With a little planning, a guy could also make a coin-sorter on a wood
lathe without too much trouble. You know, the kind where you turn a
disc, and the change falls into tubes with the correctly sized hole.
That one comes with an extra engineering freebie- if you go to most
discount stores, they sell those made out of clear lexan so that you
can see the thing working. Easy enough to copy, if a guy were so
inclined.
On the topic of coins, a guy could also make a bank similar (though
smaller in scale) to those charity collection baskets that are a big
plasic cone that allows you to roll a coin on edge down a channel on
the rim so you can watch it roll in a spiral down to the hole for the
box. With a few nicely turned spindles to support the rim, that could
be a pretty classy change dish for a desk.
Hardwood dowels and drilled holes are your friends, too- a lot of
things can be made with a comination of levers and pivot points.
I guess the point is that there are all sorts of things a guy can make
that move- as always, necessity ends up dictating what a person is
likely to do. A lot of things that are made of metal can be
replicated in wood, but it usually requires a good deal of scaling up
to account for the differences in material strength- and that includes
machinery (I've got a homemade flex-arm in my shop made of hard maple
for drilling plumb holes with my hand drill when things won't fit
under the drill press, and it works great.) Some random web searches
are bound to come up with any number of websites made by people who
have done just about anything you could imagine- ranging from the
sublime to the absurd. It's amazing what a determined person can
accomplish!
Keep it up, and have fun!