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Go BIG or GO HOME!

1299 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Gaffboat
So, you have probably seen these wooden kinetic art pieces that people sell. They are usually set onto a table or hang from a wall. They are small, and generally quite intricate in their design, with gears and levers and counter balance arms, and strings, etc. They are interesting to watch,

Most of them are sold as kits, laser cut from thin plywood. You put them together and set them on a table. Some of them are clocks. Some are just artistic mechanical things.

Well, I never do anything small. so I want to find interesting kinetic art kits (or plans) that I can scale up to a respectable size! I want to take something that was designed to be 10 or 12 inches tall, and make an outdoor yard art piece that might reach 12 FEET in height or more.

They can either be wind or motor driven, or I may convert them to be such. I want to make something spectacular.

I have a 5x10 cnc plasma table and a 5x10 cnc router table. I have a myriad of tools. I just need to find something to make! I am open to suggestions.

Joe
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With CNCs that large the possibilities are nearly endless. All it takes is a creative mind, some making/fabrication experience, and the skill to use the CNCs to come up with something to make on such large machines.

I oversaw the use of a small room of small CNCs used for student furniture designs. No lack of ideas from the creative students I had. We also had a 5x10 Multicam CNC which was mostly used to cut small parts out of large sheets of Baltic Birch plywood. Only rarely did someone (usually a professor) use the CNC's potential to make something that truly needed the large area of the CNC. Same for the large CNC plasma we had.

The kinetic art pieces you mention, or scaled to size dinosaur kits, or any small CNC or laser cut project that could be more useful if scaled up might be fun to make. Seasonal yard art such as Santa's sleigh and a few reindeer profiles, or ghouls and witches for Halloween? You could make building kit components from wood and metal brackets to hold them together. Finding/making an end project that needs parts from both wood and metal CNCs would be a good challenge. There is plenty of potential for creative furniture parts from both.
4D
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With CNCs that large the possibilities are nearly endless. All it takes is a creative mind, some making/fabrication experience, and the skill to use the CNCs to come up with something to make on such large machines.

I oversaw the use of a small room of small CNCs used for student furniture designs. No lack of ideas from the creative students I had. We also had a 5x10 Multicam CNC which was mostly used to cut small parts out of large sheets of Baltic Birch plywood. Only rarely did someone (usually a professor) use the CNC's potential to make something that truly needed the large area of the CNC. Same for the large CNC plasma we had.

The kinetic art pieces you mention, or scaled to size dinosaur kits, or any small CNC or laser cut project that could be more useful if scaled up might be fun to make. Seasonal yard art such as Santa's sleigh and a few reindeer profiles, or ghouls and witches for Halloween? You could make building kit components from wood and metal brackets to hold them together. Finding/making an end project that needs parts from both wood and metal CNCs would be a good challenge. There is plenty of potential for creative furniture parts from both.
4D

If I were 40 years younger and 100 lb. lighter, my workshops would be a world tour destination!

Joe
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... All it takes is a creative mind.... Seasonal yard art such as Santa's sleigh and a few reindeer profiles
Hmm... Would be neat to make a 15' tall reindeer. Maybe when plywood or similar material comes down in price.
It'll be a while before that happens
Many years ago I purchased Gearotic Motion software to do just that. I originally got a cnc so I could cut wooden gears to make a clock. I've made many clock cases but never the guts for the clock. Some day I may try to learn the software and get going on a clicker or wooden clock project. Until then...

Good luck. Let us know how it goes. I wanted something more like 3 to 4 feet so a little less ambitious. lol.
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Hi, A few years ago Oliver inspired me and I bought a few books that have exactly what you're looking for. I bought most used from Amazon searches. They often show new AND used copies from other vendors. Here are the titles and authors.

Rodney Peppe's Moving Toys With complete plans for every toy.

Working Wooden Toys by Marion Miller. Lots of things that move.

Creative Kinetics, Making Mechanical Marvels in Wood, by Rodney Frost (Shows mechanisms too.

Whacky Toys, Whirligigs &Whatchamacallits, also by Rodney Frost (More really fascinating toys).

Making Whirligigs, Whimsies & Folk Toys, by Rodney Frost with detailed plans.

All five of these are terrific, although I think the books by Frost look more like the kind of project you're looking for.
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Check out [email protected] --> Scrollsaw Workshop he has free plans and plans for sale. They are in pdf files and can be brought into Vectrics, Inkscape etc.
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Hi, A few years ago Oliver inspired me and I bought a few books that have exactly what you're looking for. I bought most used from Amazon searches. They often show new AND used copies from other vendors. Here are the titles and authors.

Rodney Peppe's Moving Toys With complete plans for every toy.

Working Wooden Toys by Marion Miller. Lots of things that move.

Creative Kinetics, Making Mechanical Marvels in Wood, by Rodney Frost (Shows mechanisms too.

Whacky Toys, Whirligigs &Whatchamacallits, also by Rodney Frost (More really fascinating toys).

Making Whirligigs, Whimsies & Folk Toys, by Rodney Frost with detailed plans.

All five of these are terrific, although I think the books by Frost look more like the kind of project you're looking for.

Thank you! I will follow up on all of these leads!

Joe
The thing about clocks is that they rely on the swing of a pendulum for accurate time. So a small desk clock will swing faster than a heavy pendulum on a pivot bearing that is perhaps eight feet long. So a clock would be more challenging to scale up while maintaining the ability to keep the correct time, because you would have to take that slow swinging pendulum into consideration.

A mechanical device that simply relies on gears and levers, and is either wind driven or motor driven, or perhaps uses water in a paddle wheel scenario could be scaled up more easily, I would imagine.

Joe
Joe,

The pendulum can be almost any length based on the escapement wheel and gear train. I have a gear train ratio calculator somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this. I really enjoy seeing this kind of project.
I made this You Tube video about a free program called LINKAGE SOFTWARE. This is very helpful to figure out the mechanics of devices.

Joe

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I made this You Tube video about a free program called LINKAGE SOFTWARE. This is very helpful to figure out the mechanics of devices.

Joe

Interesting video. I have a book on mechanisms for such projects..."Mechanical Movements, Mechanisms and Devices, by Henry Brown has a LOT of information.

Rodney Frost has yet another in "Making Mad Toys & Mechanical Marvels in Wood," which again covers the topic. Frost's books have large patterns and drawings/pictures of the mechanisms.
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Thanks for the info about the Linkage Software. The program would have saved me a lot of time spent head scratching, sketching mechanisms to determine movement, and making test pieces to see how things worked.
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