I was distracted goofing around with the proper colour for the skeleton's tube. Lots of tubes are what I consider too colourful for this project. I'm afraid that bright colours might be too visually distracting from the skeleton itself. Also I image the portals to hell should likely be more subdued not neon! It is unusual for me to do this but I pulled out some coloured pencils to check out some possibilities. I settled on this one in the end.

Here is the start of another project.  What started out as a boy tubing at the cottage has turned into a skeleton tubing on the River Styx of Greek mythology. He is riding "Bone Crusher", a popular tube make of the underworld. There isn't much do do while waiting for a new soul, so some waiting choose this unusual form of entertainment.

​Hopefully when done he will bounce around quite vigorously.  Time will tell.

Here's a sneak peek at the finished A Boat, A Boy, And A Dog, as it leaves the shop on its way to video production. What can be more fun than blasting around the lake in a tin boat with man's best friend - it is almost a rite of passage in cottage country!

OOPS! There is radio on in the background so you might want to mute before playing!

Yes it has been a while since a serious blog entry has occurred here. What happened?  Life happened! Other projects, summer heat and all the thousands of little things that keep you out of the workshop. I have however been sitting by the lake every now and then designing some new stuff. Nothing really big, but rather a collection of small designs that I am calling my Summer 2021  Series.

Here is a peek of the first one under construction. Watching all the kids running around on the lake takes me back to childhood days.  It is called  "A Boat, A Boy and A Dog".  Below are photos of the principal unassembled components. When completed the boat will bounce,  the boy will steer,  and the dog will wag his tail enthusiastically.

Added a new course today into the Learning Centre on How to employ a Geneva mechanism to suspend movement of some component driven by another part of an automata. Not rocket science but an interesting application!

Enjoy

​Al

Not seeing red as in mad, I mean seeing red as in cutting a lot of gears. You may already know I advocate printing the templates in red ink as it is easier one my eyes to facilitate easier more accurate cutting. Anyway cutting gears is like a zen moment, relaxing, wholly involved, and you usually feel good when finished!

I haven't blogged for a while. I have been busy with design work, major dock repair at the marina and helping to online school a grandson, all with a pinched nerve in my shoulder slowing me down, (sucks to be old sometimes).  We are still in COVID lockdown in this part of the world.  

​I am  working on a new piece and have created a prototype  on a key piece of the project, but I figured it was time for a little shop therapy and without finishing the design I set out to cut some gears. The project has a minimum of 28 gears at this point because o wanted to decouple several section to operate at different speeds to make things look a little more interesting. Anyway here are the first 18 gears, six of which have been cut out, which means lots of opportunity to see red again soon!

More to come soon.

A new FREE course "​​Using Cams to Impart Vertical Motion" has been added to the learning Centre!

Remember with a little new Knowledge and a little Experience, your Skills with grow!

Check it out!    What else is there to do but watch endless newscasts on COVID?

Today I have added two new items on the Learning Centre. The first is a new  tutorial about how to make character heads with vertically moving eyes. It is a small modified section of the "Waiting At The Clinic" building project tutorial. This new course can be taken for free. It is meant to be an option for those that might be too intimidated to take on a project as big as "Waiting At The Clinic" or might be beyond their means. So watch this course to learn how to add moving eyes as a feature to any other project you may may wish to apply it too.

The second item is a gallery of photos and videos that they have made from the Learning Centre course or store plans. I am impressed by the work of the students of Conquergood Creative! Take a look at the collection in  "A Gallery of Conquergood Creative Student Projects" in the Learning Centre.

If you have built any of my projects and would like to show them off in the collection, send me a photo, video, or video link, your first name, and location for posting!  (alconq@gmail.com)

Posted the Black Bear Bliss to my Youtube channel and published a webpage page for him. I never named him, so if you have any good ideas let me know!

​Black Bear Bliss    ( link to Webpage)

https://youtu.be/JVA4HdYGFUQ     ( link to Youtube)