This is Marilyn. It was her foot that was the first mystery post. She would be the one Luigi is generously serving wine to. It's having an effect. This raven haired beauty seems to be getting a little restless. But what is she thinking? I guess you'll have to wait the the next piece of the puzzle!

Time to put the pieces together and reveal Luigi. His parts has been featured on the mystery blog trail. His apron and feet, arm holding a towel, and arm with wine bottle have all been in the blog. Given the pieces it should be evident that Luigi is a waiter; in an Italian restaurant of course. That's a bottle of Chateau Neuf D'Automata that he is holding. What role he plays in the piece 

This is a companion piece to the one posted yesterday in the blog. It should be enough to figure out one character of the coming automata piece. After doing some painting tonight I should be able to post the finished character tomorrow.

Here is another piece of the puzzle. The photo is taken at an off plane angle just to keep the confusion a little more alive. This segment is actually made from three different pieces. A further hint is that it directs correctly to the mystery piece shown on the blog two postings ago. I  haven't worked on this piece for the last few days so I'll have to get back at it! 

Well this is a weird shaped thing. Maybe you can figure out how it fits with the other pieces  shown previously. Then again it would be helpful to guess what it is supposed to be first. Maybe it would help if I told you that part of it was going to be red when it is finished.

Spending time on the computer for a few days, writing folk art plans and working out the kinks in an automata mechanism.

Well what's this? First a pair of odd looking chairs, then half a leg and now this weird picture. It looks like a pair of man's legs sticking out from under a dress! Any guesses? Seems like someone's imagination might be getting carried away. Oh well you'll have to keeping following the blog to find out. 

Another chunk of the new automata to go with he chairs. This is a lower leg, feminine looking I hope, that is part of the same piece. The leg will pivot a the knee. The actuating arm is a thin piece of brass that has been epoxied into place in a slit cut in the top of the leg. This will all be hidden in the upper leg if things continue to go according to plan.  Keep following I'll add another piece of the clue tomorrow.

Hmmm? So what's with this? I can assure you that I have not gone into the business of doll house furniture. They are part of a new automata piece in progress. But what is with the holes? One circular and one rectangular. Well I guess you'll have to keep watching the blog to see where this is going.

When people are introduced one of my automata pieces they always ask, "How does it work? How do you figure it out?" This blog entry will take a stab at answering a bit of both questions. 

Lets take our character below, Otto Mata, and have him raise his hand to wave at his adoring public! To make Otto's hand, (Point A) rise in a waving gesture 1-1/4", (distance "a" in the diagram) how much do we need to cut into cam G. This amount will be distance "g" in the diagram, the difference between the minimum and maximum cam diameter.

The answer lies in understanding the length of the levers and fulcrums that are part of the linkages between these to points.  I'll perform the calculation with the arm in the neutral, position, that is half way up. There are minor corrections that can be applied for fact that many points are following arcs not straight lines, but they will be ignored in this example.

Since Point B is fixed on Otto's shoulder and only allowed to rotate, Point C will move down as Point A moves up. It will move in portion to the leverage around the fulcrum at Point B. For Point A to rise 1.25", Point C must move 1.25" x 1/3 = 0.4167" downward.

Point D on the cam follower will travel the same distance since C and D are pinned connections (i.e. distance "c" = "d"). Since the end of the follower, Point F, can only rotate, the amount Point E will move is also a function of the lever length. Because the two points are on the same side of the fulcrum at F, the calculation to determine the distance "e" is a little different that the previous one. Point E  will move (0.4167" x 2/(1.5 +2)) = .238"  Translating  this to the cam means that the difference between the minimum and maximum diameter on the cam must be 0.238", slightly less than 1/4"

If the nominal diameter of the cam was to be 2" then the cam should have a (2+0.238/2) = 2.129" outside diameter, and a  diameter of (2-0.238/2) = 1.88" where the arm is to be raised.

How fast Otto's arm rises and falls, and how long it stays up is a whole other story! Who knows, it could be a future blog posting.

 

After cranking out a few crows I decided to add a hen to my folk art repertoire because I had a block left over from the resawing. A hen and rooster are probably among the more common folk art images. Maybe it's because if you looked out a pioneer farmhouse window is is what you would see most often in the yard. Anyway here is Henrietta.