Friday, August 8, 2008

South Facing Chariot


This afternoon I finished the little Chinese Chariot and everything works just beautiful, so smooth and easy. Just not very accurately. If it headed down a fairly straight road that turned only slightly right and left, it would maintain an accurate pointing of south. But when I designed the gear train I had my brain turned off, and put a 3 to 1 reduction in the gear train thinking they would not have to turn so fast, and that ratio fit real good. Therefore the little pointing man only compensates 1/3rd as much as he should. If the Chariot makes a complete 360 degree turn around, he only turns 120 degrees, so the Chariot would have to turn three complete turns to get him pointing south again. Talk about confusion!
Anyway it makes a good static display and all the principal parts are there. If I wanted it to work accurately, I suppose I could put some 1/3 size wheels on it, but then it would look pretty funny, and probably high center on a rock.
By the way the pointer man is a genuine Chinaman. It says "Made in China" on the bottom of one foot.
Birk

Here are some pictures of the build.