Speed is controlled by a mercury switch. There are also magnetic reed switches which turn the LED’s on and off. Additionally there is a hand-cut ratchet at the top, which causes a hammer to strike the bell every third revolution.
rotating thing toy
what it says on the tin.
Frankenrooster
The frame of this is galvanized “plumber’s tape”, wire hangers and paperclips. The skin is handsewn leather, with rooster feathers. When it was built, it walked forward, but for some reason, after the skin was fitted it only walked backwards. I’m not really sure why. Its eyes are made out of christmas tree lights.
Baby Mobile of Death
Here’s a little mobile I built as a gift to a friend’s newborn son, to hang over his crib (I’m not sure if the parents ever decided to put it there, though. Maybe a wise decision). The little rods hanging below the apparatus have little rare-earth magnets embedded in the ends, and magnets with the […]
AutoGamelan
the control mechanism is made of differently sized pulleys, rotating at slightly different rates, and tripping a switch with every revolution. Each switch activates a solenoid, which drives a hammer against a pyrex pot lid, or a length of aluminum tubing. Because the timing of each actuator is slightly different from one another, the hammer […]
ROBOZOIC
Robozoic is a collection of simple automatic creatures, which ambulate across a surface with the aid of solenoids. They have a very rudimentary system that activates the solenoids, which consists of a rotating cylinder with pins stuck in it. As the cylinder rotates, the pins trip switches to turn the solenoids off and on (essentially […]
GyroValkyrie
The Gyrovalkyrie, a variation of the Huffyphonic Gyrobanshee, which is a musical instrument made of a bicycle wheel with the spokes cut out, and replaced by guitar strings. An electric guitar pickup is mounted over the strings, and it is amplified by an electric guitar amplifier, the amplifier’s speaker is mounted underneath the apparatus. This […]
Slouchy
Slouchy’s original name was “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, after Yeat’s poem “The Second Coming”, but that name sounded so pretentious that I just truncated it. Slouchy is made mainly from perforated galvanized steel “plumber’s tape”. It has a little speaker in the back of the cone which plays a little sequence of a dinosaur growling (the […]
Windmill that Cuts Itself Down
This piece is, I think about 10 years old, but it’s still pretty cool. It’s made of scrap wood, bottlecaps, wire hangers, paperclips, tin cans, and a couple of spent 0.30 caliber rifle shells. As the blades turn, they drive a mechanism that converts the rotary motion into a reciprocating motion, driving a hacksaw blade […]
