Thread: New Project - Working Title "Mouse Wheel"

Good stuff Gus.

If your waste bin is full of rejects - your final outcome will be truly magnificent

Look forward to your next post

Regards

Keith

The brass skeleton is now buried by the timber bits posing as a body. The cables and attachments are still prototype because everything will be disassembled for finishing and reassembled with new. That process destroys some working components, in some ways that creates a "new" and "finished" prototype.

This photo of the left leg rear shows how the knee bending is achieved by cables. It is how our muscles work. Fixed to a post below the knee, the other end is guided through the leg to the front through a brass tube. This end is fixed to the torso. When the leg rotates, tension is created, pulling the cable taught bends the knee. At the top of the leg, a cable which controls the arm movement can be seen. The arm return is by a small spring inside the torso. The right arm will be fixed, holding a briefcase.

Attachment 410536

The piano wire straightens the knee once the tension is released. Above, the cable post for the knee bend cable can be seen. The right leg at this point is already on its way rearward.

Attachment 410537

This video is of the control mechanism for the leg and arm movements. The white arms are controlled by a pulley driven pivot. Each leg rotates via a brass tube passing from here into the body. The left leg tube is inside the right leg tube, a fortunate aspect of the US manufactured brass tube, all sizes telescope beautifully.

Attachment 410538

The end result.

Attachment 410539

Inside the wheel, the character is going nowhere....

Attachment 410540

Next comes the fun of creating the mouse and its movement mechanisms.

Thanks for looking,

Gus

Originally Posted by Keith_1

Good stuff Gus.

If your waste bin is full of rejects - your final outcome will be truly magnificent

Look forward to your next post

Regards

Keith

Thank you Keith !
I am finding this brass gig is an expensive way to have fun....
Regards,
Gus

Gus

Cannot open your attachments - is anybody else having that problem ?

Regards

Keith

Originally Posted by Keith_1

Gus

Cannot open your attachments - is anybody else having that problem ?

Regards

Keith

Thanks Keith, Apparently there is a broken link, I have advised the admin,
Regards,
Gus

I have Steven looking into this problem so not going to try to fix it right now as neither he or I have been able to duplicate it, so need one that's not fixed to check out.

Cheers - Neil

Perhaps we get lucky with the photos and videos .....

Leg rear.JPG

Leg detail Rear

Leg front view.JPG

Leg front detail

Rear Controls.mp4

Rear Controls

Running.mp4

Up and running

inside view.mp4

And, getting nowhere.

Thanks for watching,
Gus

You are a genius Gus

Regards

Keith

The mouse is carved and installed in its place. I would like to keep those details in the dark to maintain a surprise.The mouse movements are controlled by two cams, and associated cam followers. The camshaft with the main gears are also finalised, in this photo those are seen.

Attachment 411399

The cams are in contact with the followers, the jarrah pieces below. The critical thing about the cams in the automata is the information they contain.
First the blank cam is marked up with timing marks, in this case, seven seconds of active operation. The rest is idle rotation.

Attachment 411400

It is installed into the camshaft, attached by the followers to the element they control, and the desired movements marked on. This is a time consuming job, more often than not resulting in a new cam if the marking doesn't do what the intention was. For that reason, I usually make two identical cam blanks. If it works as intended, the blank is cut by copying the by then marked, remarked, revised, recut, added to, original.

Attachment 411401

It is then cut on the scroll saw, reinstalled for testing. Luckily, in this case only two modifications needed to be done, it works as intended.

The next phase is to connect the mouse cage mechanism to the crankshaft via pulleys.

Thanks for looking,

Gus

Originally Posted by xpro

The mouse is carved and installed in its place. I would like to keep those details in the dark to maintain a surprise.The mouse movements are controlled by two cams, and associated cam followers. The camshaft with the main gears are also finalised, in this photo those are seen.

Attachment 411399

The cams are in contact with the followers, the jarrah pieces below. The critical thing about the cams in the automata is the information they contain.
First the blank cam is marked up with timing marks, in this case, seven seconds of active operation. The rest is idle rotation.

Attachment 411400

It is installed into the camshaft, attached by the followers to the element they control, and the desired movements marked on. This is a time consuming job, more often than not resulting in a new cam if the marking doesn't do what the intention was. For that reason, I usually make two identical cam blanks. If it works as intended, the blank is cut by copying the by then marked, remarked, revised, recut, added to, original.

Attachment 411401

It is then cut on the scroll saw, reinstalled for testing. Luckily, in this case only two modifications needed to be done, it works as intended.

The next phase is to connect the mouse cage mechanism to the crankshaft via pulleys.

Thanks for looking,

Gus

Sorry Gus, sad news, the photos again didn't work...cheers, peter

Hopefully, they will appear ! Thanks Peter for the warning !

Gear & Cam blanks.jpg

Cam Timing Marks.jpg

Marked up cam.JPG

Can be read in conjunction with the previous post,

Gus

Great work as always Gus

As with Peter - I couldn't get attachments to open either

Keep up the top work mate

Regards

Keith

On its own, the original setup to move the legs worked fine. Once other cams and gears were added, the relatively minor problem with its operation became pronounced, leading to its membership of the rejects bin.
This photo is how it was, driven by a pulley to an arm which was the other end of the belt. At "top dead center", just as the two arms swung to the other side, there was a slight jerkiness, as if there is an obstruction, or a tension at that point.

Original Leg mech.JPGOriginal Leg Mech side view.JPG

That translated via the belt to other components.
The rebuilt mechanism is actuated by a cam below, different geometry, the problem disappeared.
There is nothing surprising in this rebuild, it is a normal procedure with automatons, at least for me. I have used in this automaton, three gears which were built for earlier projects and rejected for some reason. All grist for the mill..

Leg Mechanismmp4.mp4

Thanks for looking,

Gus

Looks nice and smooth Gus, TOP WORK

Regards

Keith