Welcome to the Page for Mechanical Minds!

A lot of folks, particularly those who see themselves building an automat one day, are more fascinated with how things work than the scene animated. I hope to shed a little light on the magic of mechanisms as I develop these pages. For now I'll provide links to my videos that show and explain mechanisms. More to come later.

I also suggest you review my past blog entries as many of these show how i make things. I hope to migrate some of that info here one day when I get inspired! 

Videos of Working Conquergood Creative Mechanisms

Some Videos of Prototyping bits!

This is the prototype of the wooden "swingee" hinge that is in the Tooth Fairy of "The Extraction" automata. It converts an up-and-down motion to a side-to-side motion.

Instead of using a full crankshaft design to impart the rocking motion of the penguins in "March of the Penguins" automata I used a more cam shaft like system that used weights to face the penguins back into the return position.