CONQUERGOOD CREATIVE
  • Automata Blog
  • Home
  • Tubing The River Styx
  • DJ's Bee Bop Palooza
    • Roles of Bees in a Hive
    • The Bee Bop Characters
  • Automata Gallery
    • Swimming With The Dolphins
    • A Boat, A Boy, And A Dog
    • The Invisible Audiophile
    • Black Bear Bliss
    • Parking Lot Wars
    • The Chase
    • Baa Baa Bad Sheep! >
      • Baa Baa Bad Sheep Photo Gallery
    • The Penguins' Revenge
    • Cirque de Poulet
    • I'm Thinking & Laura
    • The Bipolar Brain
    • Tempest in a Teacup
    • Inner Demon
    • Sewer Rat Symphony >
      • Musican Profiles
    • The Captive
    • Bored Out of My Skin
    • Waiting at the Clinic
    • The Diagnosis
    • Snowbirds
    • The Not So Early Bird - The Common Sleptin
    • 1 HP Heart Pump
    • The Trojan Cat
    • 7-1/2 Horsepower
    • Howdy!
    • The Bus Stop
    • Rhinoceros Racing
    • It's an Uphill Battle
    • When an MRI Goes Badly
    • A Moment of Silence
    • Who Slew the Chicken?
    • The Dentist's Office
    • Owl Hijinx
    • Horse of a Different Colour >
      • Horse of a Different Colour Features & Specs
      • Horse of a Different Colour Photo Gallery
    • March of the Penguins
    • The Extraction >
      • The Extraction Media Gallery
    • Poultry in Motion
    • School's Out!
    • Pond Life >
      • Pond Life Photo Gallery
    • Rat Co. >
      • Rat Co. Employee Profiles
      • Rat Co. Photo Gallery
    • Happy Birthday Daddy! >
      • Happy Features & Specs
      • Happy Birthday Photo Gallery
    • The Raving Fans
    • The Waiting Room >
      • Waiting Room Photo Gallery
    • Cottage Cabernet
    • Neighbourhood Watch
    • Check Please!
    • Fishing >
      • Fishing Photo Gallery
      • The Mechanism
      • Brutus the Catfish
      • Crawford the Crayfish
      • Bigmouth the Largemouth Bass
      • Buddy the Chocolate Lab
      • Gertrude and Heathcliff
    • Ian's African Lion Safari
    • Call Before You Dig >
      • Features & Specs
    • Crossing The Mara >
      • Features & Specs
    • Migrating Caribou >
      • Features & Specs
    • Rocket Pack Raccoon
    • Urban Terrorists >
      • Exploring the Urban Terrorists
      • Features & Specs
    • Top Gun
    • Miss Communication
    • Hula Hoop Girl
    • Java Jane
    • The Cranky Caterpillar
    • A Case in Point...
    • The Leafs Score!
    • Enough With The Fish!
  • Learning Centre
  • Automata Store
  • Workshop Tour!
    • Sanding
    • Drilling
    • Cutting
    • Measurement
    • Carving Tools
    • Hand Tools
    • Working With Brass
    • Work & Assembly Areas
  • Mechanisms, Tip & Tricks
    • The Why and How Of It!
  • Who Am I?
    • Making Automata
  • Contact Me
  • In The News
  • Links
  • The South Bay Railway
    • Murray's Mill
    • Rivers, Creeks & Ponds
    • Early Days Photo Gallery
    • Layout Photo Gallery
    • Layout
  • Totems
  • Some Other Small Projects
    • Misc Projects
  • Driving Home for Christmas
    • Designing the Float
    • A Penguin Prototype
    • The Human Flock
    • The Float Penguins
    • The Float Video
  • Members Page

Al's Automata Blog

Hopkin's Automata Mechanism

5/28/2014

0 Comments

 
Back in the shop after an absence and I'm working on the mechanism for Hopkins the frog. Seen here is the gear train with some of the paper templates still attached. At this point I make any adjustments needed in the gear train before I proceed any farther. Fortunately things are looking good, so on to the next step.
Picture
0 Comments

The Greening of Hopkins!

5/16/2014

1 Comment

 
Still without pupils, an eerie look at best, Hopkins has received his environmental camouflage. It isn't easy being green, or at least so says Kermit the frog a famous distant relative of Hopkins. For now Hopkins sits and waits for his pond to be developed. Hopefully those out hunting for frog's legs won't come upon him
Picture
1 Comment

Linked In in Automata!

5/14/2014

0 Comments

 
Here is a followup from the item two posts ago. It shows some of the links inside Hopkin's body during construction. Here is the same view as before just before the top cap is glued on. The two brass wires protruding from the opening near the eyeballs are the links that pivot the eyelids. The jaw pivot rod has been added and a 1/8" thick plywood arm has been attached as an actuator. Five brass rod links yet to be added, down through the bottom of the cavity, will control the eyes, eyelids, and lower jaw.
Picture
0 Comments

A Ghostly Automata Bullfrog

5/14/2014

0 Comments

 
Here's Hopkins assembled and covered with a coat of white sandable sealer prior to applying paint. It gives him a ghoulish appearance. He is still without pupils, which will only be positioned once all the linkages are attached in he mechanism. I intend to have his eyes follow a fly that is buzzing around in front of him.
Picture
Remember the water lily from a few blogs entries back?  It will be positioned somewhere in front of him as shown below.  A couple of lily pads, a fly, and the "uppers" will be complete. Then it's onto building the mechanism...
Picture
0 Comments

Hopkins Gets Automata Guts!

5/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Well it was a lovely weekend here in Southern Ontario for a change so not all the time was spent locked in the shop. The garden railroad required some spring cleaning before too many sprouts got in the way. However Hopkins did get  some internals made and installed, his lower lip progressed, some and some rudimentary shaping. In this case making,  soldering, shaping and fitting up the levers for the eye movements did take a little time.
Picture
Hopkins with eyeballs, eyelids and mouth temporarily in place. Lots of shaping of the brow yet to come when the assembly is glued together.
Picture
View without top showing lever bars for eyelids (not connected yet), right angle levers for eyeballs (one on left connected), and dowel for jaw pivot (lever arm yet to be installed}
Back in the shop this week, hopefully some big steps forward!

Al
0 Comments

Squeezing It All In!

5/9/2014

0 Comments

 
In my automata current piece I am trying to keep all the linkages and mechanism hidden inside the character. This week I've spent time back in the city working on CAD designs of internal pieces to make all of Hopkin's parts work. I'm off to the the shop tomorrow and hopefully, if there are not too many interruptions, I'll be in fabrication. Problem is it that it may be the first nice weekend of the year and the Garden Railroad needs a spring clean! 

Too many toys, too little time!

Al
0 Comments

Making Automata Characters

5/3/2014

0 Comments

 
What makes automata characters different than carvings is that the mechanism must often be built into the figures. This requires that some mechanism components need to be installed as the characters are constructed. Key holes, surfaces and pivot points are best installed while the character still has flat, square surfaces. This is the case in my current project. 

This frog  will have moving eyes and blinking eyelids, and a moving lower lip. The eye mechanisms will be installed before the top block is attached for final shaping of the body. In this way the mechanism can be installed and tested from the open top.


Picture
The centre of the body is hollowed out to allow the linkages to connect to the actuating mechanism that will be installed below. This next  photo was taken during the process, after removing some material will some forsner bits, but before final shaping with a Dremel tool. The two recesses on the top are where the eyeballs fit in.
Picture
0 Comments

Automata Eyelids

5/1/2014

0 Comments

 
What goes better with a water lily than a pair of eyelids? These are also part of the latest automata. At this point I am charging ahead of an exact design  by prototyping how I would make wooden working eyelids work with turning eyeballs. At this point things seems to be working out. (Saying something like this is usually as kiss of death!)

The eyelids are shown below. To me they resemble hazelnut shells. They were made by hollowing out a sphere with a Dremel tool to allow a smaller diameter ball to fit as a eyeball. The Canadian quarter is to show scale. The eyelids are 3/4" in diameter.

Picture
0 Comments

    Why Automata?

    Automata is a creative blend of my life interests , engineering, art  and woodworking. 

    Archives

    July 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Automata
    Call Before You Dig
    Construction
    Fish
    Folk Art
    Garden
    Mechanism
    Puzzles
    Raccoon
    Railway
    Urban Terrorists
    Using Counterweights

    RSS Feed

Conquergood Creative
Home     Contact    About   
  • Automata Blog
  • Home
  • Tubing The River Styx
  • DJ's Bee Bop Palooza
    • Roles of Bees in a Hive
    • The Bee Bop Characters
  • Automata Gallery
    • Swimming With The Dolphins
    • A Boat, A Boy, And A Dog
    • The Invisible Audiophile
    • Black Bear Bliss
    • Parking Lot Wars
    • The Chase
    • Baa Baa Bad Sheep! >
      • Baa Baa Bad Sheep Photo Gallery
    • The Penguins' Revenge
    • Cirque de Poulet
    • I'm Thinking & Laura
    • The Bipolar Brain
    • Tempest in a Teacup
    • Inner Demon
    • Sewer Rat Symphony >
      • Musican Profiles
    • The Captive
    • Bored Out of My Skin
    • Waiting at the Clinic
    • The Diagnosis
    • Snowbirds
    • The Not So Early Bird - The Common Sleptin
    • 1 HP Heart Pump
    • The Trojan Cat
    • 7-1/2 Horsepower
    • Howdy!
    • The Bus Stop
    • Rhinoceros Racing
    • It's an Uphill Battle
    • When an MRI Goes Badly
    • A Moment of Silence
    • Who Slew the Chicken?
    • The Dentist's Office
    • Owl Hijinx
    • Horse of a Different Colour >
      • Horse of a Different Colour Features & Specs
      • Horse of a Different Colour Photo Gallery
    • March of the Penguins
    • The Extraction >
      • The Extraction Media Gallery
    • Poultry in Motion
    • School's Out!
    • Pond Life >
      • Pond Life Photo Gallery
    • Rat Co. >
      • Rat Co. Employee Profiles
      • Rat Co. Photo Gallery
    • Happy Birthday Daddy! >
      • Happy Features & Specs
      • Happy Birthday Photo Gallery
    • The Raving Fans
    • The Waiting Room >
      • Waiting Room Photo Gallery
    • Cottage Cabernet
    • Neighbourhood Watch
    • Check Please!
    • Fishing >
      • Fishing Photo Gallery
      • The Mechanism
      • Brutus the Catfish
      • Crawford the Crayfish
      • Bigmouth the Largemouth Bass
      • Buddy the Chocolate Lab
      • Gertrude and Heathcliff
    • Ian's African Lion Safari
    • Call Before You Dig >
      • Features & Specs
    • Crossing The Mara >
      • Features & Specs
    • Migrating Caribou >
      • Features & Specs
    • Rocket Pack Raccoon
    • Urban Terrorists >
      • Exploring the Urban Terrorists
      • Features & Specs
    • Top Gun
    • Miss Communication
    • Hula Hoop Girl
    • Java Jane
    • The Cranky Caterpillar
    • A Case in Point...
    • The Leafs Score!
    • Enough With The Fish!
  • Learning Centre
  • Automata Store
  • Workshop Tour!
    • Sanding
    • Drilling
    • Cutting
    • Measurement
    • Carving Tools
    • Hand Tools
    • Working With Brass
    • Work & Assembly Areas
  • Mechanisms, Tip & Tricks
    • The Why and How Of It!
  • Who Am I?
    • Making Automata
  • Contact Me
  • In The News
  • Links
  • The South Bay Railway
    • Murray's Mill
    • Rivers, Creeks & Ponds
    • Early Days Photo Gallery
    • Layout Photo Gallery
    • Layout
  • Totems
  • Some Other Small Projects
    • Misc Projects
  • Driving Home for Christmas
    • Designing the Float
    • A Penguin Prototype
    • The Human Flock
    • The Float Penguins
    • The Float Video
  • Members Page