Parking Lot Wars!

I think these extended lockdowns are beginning to fry my brain, (no pun intended). You would think that with all this time for shop work without interruption things would be just flying along. Well not so for me. I have just completed a new piece where I think I have made every goof you can imagine as an automatist. I've designed cams in reverse, sanded out things I should not have, glued stuff in prematurely, cut out numerous pieces after installation and make readjustment after readjustment. I think although I do not have COVID, my brain must have. I think I'd better wake a break from the shop and do some course development work for a bit!

The good news is that after all this pain and frustration I have finally finished  my latest project. The use of magnetics in this piece required more tweaking throughout the design than I expected, but it no seems to finally work reliability. This automata results from a peculiar observation of seagulls fighting over remnants of fries in a fast food drive-thru one day. Mother Nature must be rolling over in her grave that it has come to this!

The two main protagonists of the story repeatedly peck at the last fry left on the ground. It must be a little salty because they seem content to drop it back to the ground. A third gull tries to nose in on the action but he is just not bold enough to charge in. Two others stand back and watch the melee from a short distance away.  This is all happening while that irritating seagull screech rings in the air!

Here is a teaser video until I get a webpage and full video posted for the project. I was going to post this as a building project in the learning centre, but I might have to reconsider due to the difficultly that managing the magnets may present to some folks. I'll think on it. In the meantime if you have a cute name for this piece I am not committed to "Parking Lots Wars" yet so send me any suggestions,