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)

Knocked together the Black Bear today. Not exactly sure I am happy with this movement. I may have him moving too slowly. Anyway here is a quick video ahead of the webpage story and video.

Here's a couple photos of the Bear all done. I was dragging my feet on the mechanism that moves his arms while I worked on them mechanism below. I wanted to make sure I got it right first time, since the prototype I made had something a little different than what I put in the final version. So tomorrow I just have fit things all together. Here is a couple of assembled bear photos.

I was hopeful went I opened the Learning Centre that I could encourage others to try there hand at making automata. This week I received a photograph of two projects that Vernon Freer of Bruce County had completed that were available through the Learning Centre.  Obviously Vern is a  skilled woodworker indicated by the quality of his work in the photograph. With his permission, here are Vern's "Crankman" and "8:1 Ratio Wooden Gearbox".  The little duck on the on the output shaft was his own embellishment.  Excellent work Vern!

A little more progress on the new mini automata I've been working on. I've added a a squirrel to the top of the tree trunk who's world is being rocked by the back rubbing of the bear. It is about 5/8' tall and his tail moves up and down in sync with e the bears rubbing. The mount in the photo on the right is 1" in diameter and fits down inside the top of the trunk so the mechanism is hidden. The brass pivot bar converts a 1/4" vertical movement  to a 1/8" horizontal movement  which moves the tail.

Meanwhile the bear is taking shape as shown below. He needs more shaping, a face, some ears, some fur and a mechanism to raise his arms up and down, so back to work!

A little playing around in the shop to work out a few design concepts for a new piece. I am considering  doing a small automata of a bear rubbing his back on a tree in the forest. I wanted to know if a simple up and down sliding motion of his body while his legs stayed stationary versus articulating the knees, hips, and feet so that they could move would look satisfactory. Putting all the joints on his short lower legs can be a little challenging and also unattractive to the eye. I made this little model to help me decide. (Excuse the radio in the background in these clips!)