The Story of the "Inner Demon" Automata.
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An acquaintance of mine asked me if i could make him a particular automata piece he had seen online. He had contacted the maker Tom Borrmeo, (oddlittlemachines.com) who was not interested in parting with the original nor building him another since he had stopped making automata a few years back. I agreed to make him a facsimile of Tom's wonderful piece. My acquaintance is a psychologist and this piece deals with the state of the human mind so it had great fascination for him. It depicts a young man calmly meditating while hiding the real turmoil that exists in his head. Tom's version was titled "The Meditator", I call mine "Inner Demon". It is an unusual little piece that rattles around to reveal the secret hidden inside. A curious component of the design is a downspout gutter guard screen fitted as the jail that holds the "Inner Demon" living inside his head. Also this automata employs right angle gears fabricated from wood, not pinwheels, designed with the help of the gear template generator program available from wood gears.ca. The assembly steps are a little unique. I have added a description of this process in the "Tips and Tricks" section of this website. |
"Inner Demon"
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Automata "Inner Demon" Video
The Making of "Inner Demon" Photo Gallery
The interesting dynamic of this project is that the mechanism that operates the "frantic man" hidden in the head is constantly spinning itself while the handle is being turned. There is also a large carving project in making the man's head itself. Here are some photographs of various components during the stages of construction.
