The Quest For Movement

I've been playing with different ways to make a static turning actually have some movement - Super Egg shape, ball and socket swiveled finials and other ball and socket swivel joint applications. Stumbled on another possibility. I needed a small diameter, inconspicous way to connect a counter weight to a ball and socket swivel finial. Hit a nearby hobby shop - mainly RC cars and planes, looking for some

1/16th inch steel rod. Found springy "rods" down to 0.015". Got some 0.020 and 0.025" 3 foot lengths (60-70 cents each) but didn't have any twist drills that small. for another $13.95 I got a set of 10 that go down to the 0.020" size. Was amazed to find that my tail stock jacobs chuck actually closes down that fine. Made some "tear drop" shapes maybe 3/8" diameter at their fattest and drilled into both the rounded end and the pointy end, inserted the "rod" and watched them bounce.

So now I'm working on clusters of tear drops on springy "rods" as dynamic "finials" for a lidded box. Also want to try using them horizontally around the sides of a bowl. With some delicate balance adjustments may be able to mount them on an upside down "socket" and balance it on the end of a small ball topped finial. This springy thing has possibilities.

Any ideas?

charlie b

Reply to
charlieb
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What's one good idea worth to ya, Charlie? How about six?

;-)

Make a loose ball & socket. Give the matching faces of the ball & socket a hard finish of some sort (or make them from a very hard wood) so as to minimize friction. Attach several of these sproingy things to the finial upright resting in the socket. Make the weight of the sproingy be beneath the center of gravity for the ball so that it is self-righting. Total mass of the sproingy things must exceed total mass of the ball + finial upright. Should end up with the thin finial pointer dancing around, pointing skyward.

Bonus idea 1: Mount the sproingy things so that they hit a drum head or xylophone when jostled. Make the wire part long enough to allow the hammer head to hit any of several notes. More complicated. But also more noticeable.

Bonus idea 2: Mount the weights at a mid point of an arc of spring wire (metal guitar string?)resting just above the top of a hollow form. Use two or more arcs. Cross them through each other.

Bonus idea 3: Same as #2 except the arcs reach from anchor points at the bottom & top so that the weight only reacts to lateral movement sufficiently to strike the sides.

Bonus idea 4: Mount the sproingy things on the inside of a hollow form in a hidden location so that it tattles when it is moved. Hide the mounting holes with Inlace. ____________________ ---/---------------- / / / / / | / | / / \ / \-/ / \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ _______________________________________________

Oh .. one more only slightly related to your original 'sproingy' premise: Turn a hollow form. Cut away 1/2-3/4 of the wood (use your imagination for the pattern). Insert radiometer or suspend sheets of gold leaf. Add lid with static finial. The radiometer will respond to light striking it; the gold leaf will respond to both VERY tiny wind currents and changing electrical charges. A speaker coil without a cone placed nearby might be enough to stir stuff up ... might not. Try the ionizer off one of those cheapy 'air purifiers'. Add an interior light so the show continues after dark.

No charge ... but I reserve the right to exercise these ideas, too.

Bill

Reply to
Bill in Detroit

Charlie, My daughter once sent me some turned bottle stoppers from Italy. They had a floppy spring ~ 1-1/2 in. long X ~1/16 dia. glued in the top with a brightly colored wood ball on the end. Some were like grapes, some cherries, some olives. I 'plagiarized' a few and though no one admitted to wanting one, everyone tilted them back and forth to watch the ball bounce.

I also made a few 'Humpty Dumpty's with weighted round bottoms copied from some long forgotten article. Probably others here did too and will remember. ?

I tried suspending marbles and shiny ball bearings, even small sleigh bells in inside-out turnings. Sadly, they were 'involuntary one-offs' never to be repeated.

There used to be a well known restaurant in Chicago whose signature was building and dressing caesar salads in a large spinning wooden salad bowl at your table. I often thought of turning a large salad bowl with some sort of integral weighted lazy susan to keep it spinning. I never did, but if I had I'd have called it the "round-tuit bowl" and maybe made my fortune. Arragh! Probably not!

Thanks for challenging us with fresh ideas.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch

If it's movement you're after, have you considered taking some of the elements from your chain design and modifying them to allow a ball bearing (or several) to roll along a channel where the joints in the two halves of your cups come together?

While that might not be such a useful thing on an articulated chain, it might make for a neat child's toy, such as a rattle or ball- or even just something to sit on a desk to be played with every so often.

If you were, for instance, to make two smallish bowls that had mating lips that would allow you to glue them together (just like the chain parts), you could turn that channel on the outside of those mating parts so that it made a taurus with a slot on the outside edge of the ring when the two parts were glued together. That slot would allow you to see the ball or balls inside, and they could roll freely inside the edge.

Add a little rice or something to the center before gluing, and you'd have sound as well. As a ball, and not a rattle, it might make for some interesting wobbly rolling, though I have not tried it out. It just seemed like something that might be up your alley in your quest for movement!

Reply to
Prometheus

| | LID | +---------+ | | +--+ +-+ +-+ | | ( ) | | BALL BEARING(S) IN GROOVE +---+ +----+ | | | BOX

| | | ___ | LID / / \ | +--+ +--+ Inside of Piece Ball +---+ +--+( ) | | \ \___/ | BOX | |

Now you've got me thinking about bearings. You can get "guide bearings" for router bits, Why not make a piece with spinning disks between the Top and the Bottom . Center shaft on dowel attached to the Lid, disks pressed onto the outside of the bearing. The owner could rearrange the disks to form different patterns. Add "springy" mounted "vanes" to catch the wind and have them spin horizontaly. Depending on how the vanes were orientated on each disk you cuold get a turbine effect - air flow from one blowing down onto the next.

OR - use them like a safe's tumblers for some kind of puzzle box locking mechanism.

MAGNETS! You can buy rare earth disk magnets. Mount opposite polarities - one in the bottom of the foot of a piece, the other in a hole in the base under the piece with some sort of lip to contain horizontal movement while allowing rotation and some tipping / rocking. No friction so nothing to slow down rotation.

So many possible ways to get actual movement and yet most turnings are STATIC. Why?

More ideas for ways to add actual movement to a piece?

charlie b

Reply to
charlieb

Because a salad that's moving is not a good sign?

Bill

Reply to
Bill in Detroit

That's the one I was describing.

Why not? Well, because that's an awfully expensive way to do that! :)

I would think that nylon washers from any given hardware store would be plenty, and allow you to have a little more control over the size of the dowel you were using.

Take a look at this, if you're interested in that-

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It should give you some good ideas. (That's an awfully neat site overall, really- a little light on details, but excellent for getting the gears turning.)

That's an easy one- lack of need, motivation, or imagination. Since most guys who engage in a hobby like this are rarely guilty of the second two, I'd guess most just aren't that concerned about adding movement to the pieces. Ocassionaly, there's a little bit of elitist behavior in craft and trade work as well, as you've no doubt noticed. If it doesn't fit the general scheme what they've seen in a museum or gallery, some guys won't bother with it. (Though that does not seem to ring very true for most of the regular posters on this particular group.)

There is also a big mental "gap" (for lack of a better term) between thinking about making an object that is stationary and one that has moving parts. I found that one out firsthand as I have been building my metal lathe- while the individual parts are all relatively simple (The most complex machining op I've had to do is mill two slots for feed screws,) the guys I work with seem to think the project is something so difficult that no one should even consider attempting it.

Kind of funny when you think about it, considering we make parts that will be moving when they're installed by the customer all day long- they're just not accustomed to assembling things, I guess. :)

If you're looking to add a little flatwork as well, the addition of cams can make some amazing little toys. I know you've seen the wind-powered lawn decorations that feature a wooden puppet sawing a log at least once (Or at least, I hope you have- they used to be all over the place, but I haven't seen one in a while.)

There are also plans availible for crafting wooden clocks. While I believe those are intended for scroll sawyers, a guy with a lathe could turn the gear blanks and then hob wooden gears with a cutter mounted in a drill chuck in the spindle and a shop-made dividing head- it's not as hard as it may sound, if you've got a protractor and a drill press. (One day I'm going to take some time out from everything else and make myself one of those clocks- they're awfully neat. Especially if you made each gear from a different piece of exotic scrap and left them exposed!)

With a little planning, a guy could also make a coin-sorter on a wood lathe without too much trouble. You know, the kind where you turn a disc, and the change falls into tubes with the correctly sized hole. That one comes with an extra engineering freebie- if you go to most discount stores, they sell those made out of clear lexan so that you can see the thing working. Easy enough to copy, if a guy were so inclined.

On the topic of coins, a guy could also make a bank similar (though smaller in scale) to those charity collection baskets that are a big plasic cone that allows you to roll a coin on edge down a channel on the rim so you can watch it roll in a spiral down to the hole for the box. With a few nicely turned spindles to support the rim, that could be a pretty classy change dish for a desk.

Hardwood dowels and drilled holes are your friends, too- a lot of things can be made with a comination of levers and pivot points.

I guess the point is that there are all sorts of things a guy can make that move- as always, necessity ends up dictating what a person is likely to do. A lot of things that are made of metal can be replicated in wood, but it usually requires a good deal of scaling up to account for the differences in material strength- and that includes machinery (I've got a homemade flex-arm in my shop made of hard maple for drilling plumb holes with my hand drill when things won't fit under the drill press, and it works great.) Some random web searches are bound to come up with any number of websites made by people who have done just about anything you could imagine- ranging from the sublime to the absurd. It's amazing what a determined person can accomplish!

Keep it up, and have fun!

Reply to
Prometheus

Hi Prometheus

As they say, nothing new in this world, it's all been done before.

Couple links here for some' "movement" and for inspiration, if anyone does run out of it. ;-)))

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Reply to
l.vanderloo

Those are some rediculously expensive bowls!

Any of you guys sell turnings at those prices, or is that just some guy's overinflated ego? Personally, I think I'd feel sort of bad if I charged $150 for a piece like that. :)

Reply to
Prometheus

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> > Have fun and take care > Leo Van Der Loo

To be entirely honest, I'm having trouble imagining this as 71"

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But I wish I had his photographer (or photography skills).
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"This semicircular vessel gradually becomes thinner towards its edges to the point of being almost translucent." It's a bowl, fer cryin' out loud! Look in my catalog and you'll see a box elder pedestal bowl that isn't 'almost' translucent ... it bloody well IS translucent. Sheesh ... I gotta find a better photographer and jack my prices up ... WAAAY up!

Bill

Reply to
Bill in Detroit

Go through the gallery ... Schrieber is the modest one. Bud Latven & Bin Pho both burn a hole in a $20,000 bill.

Bill

Reply to
Bill in Detroit

That's the problem. You should be selling "Meditation Objects." :-)

Reply to
Bruce Barnett

So what you're saying is that instead of actually working, I should probably just start making simple bowls out of unremarkable maple and cashing in, eh? :)

Reply to
Prometheus

Or learn how to forge. Lots of people can make a picture look like Starry Night, but it's that "Vincent" in the corner that costs.

Reply to
George

If I bought one of those things I would sure have a lot to meditate about.

Reply to
Eddie Munster

Yeah, at those prices I think I could squeak by on a couple sales a month until I could build the business a little. ;-)

Oh, and holly, too. You have to be able to work in a wide variety of unremakarble woods.

(Although I can finally see what all the hullabaloo about lignum vitae is about ... I'd never seen the grain in that big of a piece before. So maybe you could make a couple candle stick kits or something from it, eh?)

Bill

Reply to
Bill in Detroit

I'm going to call mine a "Universal Entropy Collector" or a "Micro Syncretion Disk" (if it warps, change the name to "Syncretion Ovoid with Tears" and put a couple of those black rocks called "Apache Tears" in it, and sell it to the gubmint.;-)

It's all in the name ... I think I'm all done selling bowls for a living. ;-)

Bill

Reply to
Bill in Detroit

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Reply to
charlieb

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