I'm doing one more "swimming" motion automata after making two that have Orcas frolicking in the water. Neither of these have had  web pages created for them yet . (I need to rebalance my streaming TV time versus blog time! ) I'm going to go back to doing some of my more traditional wood mechanism projects for a while after these few wire mechanisms.

Here are a couple of photos of the "yet to be named" mermaid in progress. We have one of her outside sunning herself  before she faces the bandsaw guillotine, one of her strapped into the cutting sled, and finally one of her successfully separated into five pieces. This is always a stressful moment trying hard not to not make an error that would destroy a lot of work already invested in her.

Anyway you can see she has survived so far, so next it is on to installing her hinges between body parts.  It's less stressful perhaps but still tedious!

Here is a  recent project completed. I have not entered it as a webpage yet as it was a surprise commission so I had to keep it off the record for a while. I will add a webpage and video the next few days.

If you haven't noticed the Balsam Lake Elevator webpages have been added to the website. Enjoy!

Well this seems like a long time and an adventure of a lifetime has passed since I stated I was about to reveal my latest project.  While I pushed to to add all the last little bits of the project, including a frame, a monumental ice storm hit Central Ontario we we found ourselves in an ice covered wonderland which brought with it a 6 day power outage. This  was accompanied by trees down all around us, road closures, a loss of  internet services, loss of land based telephones, and periodic loss of cell phone services as the community spiralled into a State of Emergency Declaration. At this point many are still without services 8 days later, and  it is snowing again today. I call this photo below "Backpacking in the Kawarthas", but this is a whole other story, an adventure of a lifetime.....

I am posting this quick photo of my recently completed "Balsam Lake Elevator Company" automata built into the wall of our new house. It operates in concert with the elevator we installed. The employees of the elevator company turn cranks to raise and lower the  elevator cab between the first and second floor and to open the doors at each landing.  Another employee peers from the enclosure monitoring the flow of people in and out of the elevator, while another quietly sleeps in the corner, snoring blissfully. These employees are rats; who else would be comfortable in this working environment!

So here is a still photo for now, but I will get busy, temporarily remove the glass to get rid of the glare, complete some video, add some more photos  and compose the back story of all the characters and post a webpage for "The Balsam Lake Elevator Company"

While I have been running around doing a million other things I am still trying to put a little time every week to finish up my last automata project. The wasps and spider web depicted in my recent  posts are part of the same project. They are all little bits of things to add a little more detail, and hopefully a little more curiosity and a touch of awe.  None of these additions have any moving components, and they are mostly just for "eye candy" for observers. I call it adding a little "Bling" to the project. 

My very first job had just such a system! Oh, the fond memories of the antics, conversations and ribbing that went on while we stood lined up, waiting for the clock to register quitting time. Then the mad dash  as everyone raced to punch out and  be the first into the parking lot and out the gate!

This latest piece of "bling"  should be a pretty good clue as to what the main theme of the automata is if you have figured it out already from previous clues!  A few more bits to go and I'll get to the big reveal!

I often get inquiries to my website from people asking if a specific project they see on my site has a kit available for sale or is there a plan they could buy to make it. I don't engage in the task of making and selling kits because I like the process of design and building more than the repetitive jobs of cutting out parts and stuffing them into boxes to sell. I can't usually provide carving details as they often just evolve from my mind as work. In reality I am not in the automata world to make money. I do try to cover my material and website costs for what I make though, but ultimately I make automata it because it is challenging and creative and often makes people smile.

I had one such  enquiry recently about plans for my "Bored Out of My Skin" automata from a follower in Romania. Not satisfied with the unavailability of plans or parts, they set out to build their own version by studying the video and pictures that existed on my website. A received a few specific questions from them and we exchanged several emails and ultimately I sent them, some more construction photos I had, and some supporting description on  how things worked and the order of assembly I used.

On learning of the impending completion of their effort I asked them to send me a photo to show me how things turned out. I was to delighted to receive the video below.  They have allowed me to share their video on my blog site. I am really impressed how they managed to create a wonderful version of the automata even incorporating a perfect little twist  to my original design, with only a little guidance from me. They cleverly assembled this lovely little piece with only limited guidance from me. The workmanship is delightful for someone who I believe is only recently venturing into the world of automata.

I congratulate Codrut Bila of Romania for his execution of this piece. You should be very proud of your accomplishment. I thank you for allowing me to share this story with others. Hopefully together we may inspire some others to jump into the world of automata.

So here with further ado, and no editing by me, is Codrut Bila's adaptation of my "Bored Out of My Skin"

Today's blog is a twisted version of a webinar since it relates to my current project work. Simply put I am going to show you a web, (a spider web that is), that I made for my yet to be revealed automata . It seems like another thing you might find inside a wall which is where this project will reside. To start, I surfed the web seeing what other folks in the world might be doing to build spider webs. Of course I found quite a diversity. Some were big enough to cover an entire house at Halloween, right down to some other very fragile ones you might see in a small dream catcher.  Many are simply woven using rope, yarn, string, fishing line,, or fine wire. My requirements were for a web of about five inches in diameter, so I needed something fairly fine, but yet I wanted something fairly robust and rigid, keeping in character with the construction style of my project.

After some serious pontification I opted to build my web using small diameter rigid brass rods soldered together in the traditional spider web look.

If you have followed my blogs or examined my site , you should have picked up that my favourite medium to use in making automata is wood. This includes shafts and bearings. It's tricky, but fun, to configure the right clearances the correct wood, and which natural lubricants can make things work nicely. As long as you are making automata for personal use or sale to collectors, where limited hours of operation are normally expected this is okay, and it adds uniqueness to the finished project.

It goes without saying if you are doing museum or gallery work, public donation boxes, science centre displays. or the like you need to think differently. These will all tend to be operated frequently compared to art owned by collectors. I have been to displays where automata are initiated by the action of the public pushing a button.  This is not uncommon. On a busy day the automata operated more than it stood idle. If it is your taks to build a machine for this service, you better be building with stronger more rugged materials, metal bearings and try to minimize load on sliding surfaces. I do have to say though that a nicely finished metal only component automata looks really fantastic to me, its not for me to build,  I am  more a carpenter  a machinist!

I'm relating this you you as I find myself in that transitional space again. The automata I've been working on is not hand operated but is motor driven and with its function within the house it will likely be operated fairly frequently. So metal bearings and shafts it is. Of course I will make as many of the visual components out of wood wherever practical since I love the look but where is metal I will try to disguise it in this piece.  It helps that in this case a lot of the mechanism  will be hidden from view, so it is not too difficult, 

Here is an example of keeping the "Old Country Charm" by hiding metal components in an observers field as it relates to this project . There are several large gears plainly visible in the piece. They have semi-precision metal bearings pressed into their hubs. In the photo below on the left you can see three shafts and bearings staring you right in the face! I made three wooden boots that are a press fit onto the hexagonal nuts and can be removed if necessary for repair. They do not push on enough to interfere with the spinning gear. The  photo on the right shows the same gears an the visual result of hiding these metal bits which, to me at least is much more pleasant to look at.  

This is what I call keeping the "Old Country Charm" by hiding not so pretty metal components needed for dependable operation.  As far as the expression goes, you will likely never hear anyone use it again in reference to automata, even me!

The bees are now inhabiting the hole in the wall where the automata is. A few are in the nest while others have found other locations to hide in. I still have not revealed the entire story of the automata so I won't show you where they all are as it might give things away. I am hoping you will get a real lift out of the automata when you see it, or at least it pushes your buttons! Oops I guess that was a bit more of a clue! Hmmm!