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.

Ride in the Wind

A long time ago, somewhere around 500 years, some guy by the name of Leonardo was inventing all sorts of unheard of (at that time) things. In his illustrations he used peg toothed gears. They looked so intriguing, and I've wanted to try building some for as long time. I finally got around to doing it a couple weeks ago. For the body I used 3/8" aluminum, and in one I put 1/4" brass pegs and in the other stainless. Dissimilar metals usually wear better. Shown below are the results.

As with all new things, there are things to be learned, and I learned they need to be properly meshed. In some positions they would hardly run against each other, and in other positions they ran almost as smooth as machine cut gears.
The final use for the gears was in another wind sculpture for the yard to amuse people, as can be seen below.


It is simply an assemblage of used parts, painted some gaudy colors. The rotor turns a shaft that extends down and operates the peg gears, that in turn operate the pedals. The head is fastened to the shaft so it turns with the rotor, and it has a face on both sides so it does a lot of looking around. It is not very normal, but then not much else around here is either, so what the heck.

Birk

Fathers Day

Here it is Father's Day again. Perhaps You would like to see a picture of my Father's Day Fishing Pole?

It was stuck on the side of the barn, and before long a flying fish got hooked. Now that might sound like a "fish story" but here is a picture to prove it!

All you fathers and prospective fathers have a good Father's Day, OK.

Out of work

Yesterday I completed an automaton of a little shoemaker, so now I'm out of work AGAIN! That is the hard part of life, thinking up something new to do.


The helical cam that moves the arms and head back and forth, was machined using my homemade helical attachment.


Here he is in action.

Antique Clock Replica

Sooner or later it seems that most hobby machinists have to fulfill a need to build a clock. Not because they need one, but because need to satisfy the desire to prove to themselves that they can do it.
Over the years I had accumulated numerous plans that were available, but somehow I do not get much satisfaction from building something from someone else's plan, I'd rather do my own thing. That is not saying that I do not glean ideas from others, because I do that a lot, and sometimes modify them to fit my own needs.
For the clock, I finally went to the library and got a book on old clocks. I picked a small one with a picture that showed a good representation of the working parts and went from there.

There was no way of telling what size it was so I just guessed. It was pretty easy to estimate how many teeth in the gears, etc. so it was not all that difficult to make a scale drawing. According to the book the clock was built about 500 years ago, and perhaps that is before they had invented screws, because there are none in it. Everything is either riveted or fastened with tapered pins. At first I thought "how awkward", but it turned out to be every bit as easy as using screws.

There are a few changes in the design of my clock and the original. Mine has a little dragon rather than a bird to support the foliot or balance that controls the speed, which hangs by a thread. It keeps fairly accurate time, except it is different that modern clocks. There is only one hand, that takes two hours to make a revolution. My only guess is that 500 years ago they were still using hour glasses, and perhaps they had not standardized on the 12 hour dial as we now know.
Anyway it turned out to be a very satisfying project.
Birk

Mowing Season

Can you believe that after a long cold winter we are fast approaching the lawn mowing season. I have been so envious of those people with riding lawn mowers. Riding lawn mowers are expensive, however I have the skills that I used to build my own "Self Powered Riding Lawn Mower".

Now, I am the envy of all those "push mower" people.
Birk

Elevator

Most people as they grow older go through a period called a second childhood, But not me, I do not have to worry about anything like that. I have not grown out of my first childhood yet. When my body was little I had a toy elevator that was lots of fun, but it was cheaply built out of tin can type material and did not last. I was longing for that toy, so recently I constructed a replacement as near as I could recall. It is not exactly the same, as 70 years is a long time to remember something. The original used large glass marbles. I think they were called a taw. The reproduction uses 3/4" steel ball bearings. A release mechanism releases one at a time into the elevator car which travels to the bottom and is dumped out. Then it returns to the top for another one. There is a propeller on the pulley shaft powered by a one way clutch out of a computer printer that adds a little commotion.







It will keep running as long as there are balls on the feed chute, so it is a lot of fun for kids to keep putting them back up there.
The problem I have with it is that whenever our great-grand kids come to visit, they always want to play with the elevator, and they do not want to let me have "my" turn!

Oh, and by the way I got a corrugated roof formed and shaped for the steam shovel yesterday, although it is not fastened down yet.

I do not know if roofs were to provide protection from sun or storm, but either way I'm almost ready.
Birk

Pistol Pete

I need to make an opening statement that I'm not a gun nut. What I enjoy about them is that they are mechanical things, and machining parts for them is not different than machining parts for any other metal project, and I can express myself with a bit of art work.
When our son Mark was in high school he worked part time in a little gun store to earn some spending money, and through that experience he acquired the nick name "Pistol Pete". A name that he quite liked. In fact, at age 50 his wife still calls him "Pete". So a while ago, for a project for me, and a memento for him I built him a muzzle loading pistol. The barrel is a remnant from a rifle barrel. Patterns were carved and castings poured out of aluminum bronze. The butt cap is a casting that looks like the face of his little beagle dog. The hammer spring was hand forged out of a pitch fork tine. It has a carving of a moose, and an antelope, both of which Mark has bagged during his lifetime, plus oak and maple leaves. Although it does not show in very well in the pictures, the barrel is engraved with scroll work and the words "Pistol Pete". Ruby garnets are set in the fore end cap, the dragon's eyes and the beagle dog eyes. Although it is fully functional, it is very doubtful that it will ever be fired. It is a show piece.




When I gave the pistol to Mark I was telling him that the hammer was a "Fire Spitting Dragon". His little daughter Shyrel who was about 6 at the time, put her hands on her hips, looked me straight in the eye, and said "No its not Grandpa, Its a baby dragon and it is sucking on the nipple." Oh well, you cannot fool then all the time, and some you cannot fool any of the time.
Birk

Lathe Trade

A few years back when I had to go to work for a living, One of the coworkers named Kip was telling me of going to a yard sale and buying a little metal cutting lathe for $40. He did not know what kind it was, but it sounded intriguing. Kip builds things by welding, but does not have much interest in machining, so I offered to buy it from him to put in my collection. I even got up to where I offered three times what he paid, but it simply was not for sale for money. However he was very willing to trade it for one of my miniature muzzle loading rifles. I don't normally do gun work for people outside my family, but Kip was almost like family and I wanted that lathe, so I agreed.
I failed to take a picture after the rifle was finished, but below is one taken during construction. There is a full size Hawken muzzle loader reproduction that I built for myself leaning against the tool cabinet for size reference. Then a half size one right below it, and the one in the vise under construction is the one that was traded for the lathe.

It took about a hundred hours to build the miniature, because every part has to be hand made from scratch. I finally finished it and delivered it to him, and then he brought the lathe for me the next day, like a mail order bride. That lathe had so much crud on it you could not even tell what it was. But some solvent and a parts washing brush fixed that. I uncovered a decal that said "Craftsman".
It was a model AA109.

Was it a fair trade? You bet! We both got what we wanted. I got more iron, and he might have got more value, but what is a few hours between good friends.
At home Kip had a 4 year old grandson pose with the rifle while they took some pictures and that kid was really "hamming" it up. When the picture taking was finished, Kip went to get the rifle and that was not an option as far as the grandson was concerned. Kip had to pry his fingers off to get it back.
Shortly after I got the AA109 set up on display, my friend George from Brigham City brought me a box of lathe parts that someone had given to him. Apparently someone had taken it apart to paint it and then never reassembled it again. The main parts were there, but so many of the little parts had vanished, like gibs, half nut, handles, etc. etc. that it was no longer serviceable. It was a model 80. Just a newer version of the AA109. Most of the working parts are interchangeable. After sitting in the nurturing atmosphere of my workshop it began to grow those missing parts until it became functional again.



Both lathes are now on display. They would do machining, but not the way my new Jet does, so they can just sit there and amuse our visitors.
Birk

Manure Spreader

Mechanical things of all sorts fascinate me. I was born and raised out on a farm. Although seasonal, one of my first paying jobs was working a a steam powered sugar factory. Then I spent over forty years working at a steel fabricating and manufacturing plant as a facilities Engineer, which provided me an opportunity to visit and see many other facilities all over the nation. My eyeballs were exposed to viewing all sorts of mechanical contraptions, and I loved all of them.
I was thinking I'd like to build something that used drive chain. In scale size, I was thinking of using some "ladder chain", even my old Erector Set had a piece of that. Finally I decided on a Manure spreader, a humble but very essential piece of farm equipment. After months of looking I finally located one as a decorator item in a lady's flower bed, that I could get measurements from. It was of the 1930's vintage which would been state of the art about the time I was born.


The second picture shows it well under construction. I tried to follow the construction of the original, right down to each rivet and bolt. There were lots of rivets in this model, a couple hundred of them. the whole frame was riveted together, as well as the wheel lugs and beater parts, etc. For rivets I used snipped off 19 gage wire brads, and set them with my tiny rivet press (third picture)



The picture shows the size of the press. The scrap metal there, has a trial rivet set in it. The angle Iron frame of this model varied from about 1/8" x 1/8" to 1/4" x 1/4" so setting rivets would have nearly impossible with a hammer without mashing everything. It was so easy with the press. The difficult part was that rivets had to be placed in the holes with tiny needle nose pliers, and sometimes the rivet would slip and go flying off in some unknown direction. No need to even try looking for it, just get another one.


The last picture shows the finished spreader. I found the color scheme and brand name in one of Charles Wendel's books. It has turned out to be a real fun model to show. Everyone has some kind of humorous remark to make about it. Like one fellow suggested it be loaded with cinnamon sugar and raisins when making sweet rolls, or shredded cheese when making pizza. Another suggested Bull Durham tobacco because it would look and smell like the real stuff. Another suggest corn flakes because they would be easy to vacuum off the living room floor. One fellow informed me that manure spreaders never came with a warranty. That is one machine that manufactures just would not stand behind. The list goes on and on. Perhaps you will have a comment too.
Birk

Helical Machining- Gatling Gun

The Model Gatling gun that I built needed two cylindrical cams. They are the things that push the bolts in and out to load and extract the cartridges as the drum is rotated. The cam surfaces were helical in nature so the helical attachment that I posted a picture of yesterday was a natural. Shown here is cylinder chucked in the device. A layout has been made on the part and pilot entry holes drilled. An end mill was used to do the cutting. The picture shows a pointer chucked in the collet while I ran through a trial run.

The cam surface ran circumferential for a ways, then a right hand helix for a ways, then circumferential for a ways, then left hand helix back to the starting place. With the reversing gears that had been built into the fixture it was "A piece of cake". Without the fixture they would probably have had to be filed out by hand.


Here is a picture of the finished cams about ready to be installed in the gun.


And here is a picture of the Model Gatling after it was finished. It is a 1/3rd size model. It is functional, and chambered for .22 shorts, which by the way are actually oversize for the 1/3 scale. But that is the smallest commercially available bullets that I know of. I have a good friend named Paul that lives in the Salt Lake area that has, over the years, built several hand crank machine guns. Not all were Gatling's. For some of his, he went all the way, and made scale size center fire cartridges. Even making them in quantity he had over $5 labor in each cartridge. Not very cost effective, but they sure are cute.
Birk

Bush Pilot

After getting the Broom Pilot up watching our yard, I got thinking she might need a little reprieve so I got a Bush Pilot to help her out. As you know, bushes do not even need a motor to flutter.



He is a right happy little fellow, although a bit on the reckless side.
Birk

Lectric Engine

If you look back through ancient issues of magazines like Popular Science, etc. you will note that electric engines have been popular hobby projects ever since electric sources became available to the public. Most were crude, being built with simple household tools, and often by people with limited skills, however they satisfied the desire to build something that would actually run.
Is it any wonder that I should want an example to include in my display. Of course I have to admit that mine, although very simple, is a more modern version. A piece of nylon was machined to wind the coil on. The steel piston slides very easily in the spool center hole. Although it can hardly be seen in the picture, it is equipped with a tiny Micro switch with a roller lever that rides against a cam on the crank shaft.

In operation the switch closes causing a magnetic field that draws the piston into the center. Just as it reaches center the switch opens and the magnet field collapses and the flywheel pulls the piston back out to where the switch closes and the cycle starts all over again.
If you are brand new at model making and would like to try making something easy----that works, perhaps this is an idea for you.

Deck gun

If it were not for guys like me old man Lindsay would probably be living in the poor house, rather than in that Mansion on the hill. Another book that I bought from Lindsay Publications is reprint of a 1922 book, "Lathe Work For Beginners". It is pretty interesting if you like reading about old obsolete stuff. After it tells all about setting up and running a lathe, there is a deck gun project shown in the back. It looked interesting so I built a modified version.

It is built to be functional with a .22 barrel. It has a falling block that allows loading. The whole action slides back when it recoils just like the big ones. There are horizontal and vertical movement hand wheels. Living so far inland, I'm not exactly sure what they use deck guns for, but I believe they world work great for "Decking" dogs that poop on your lawn.
Birk

Post Drill

You know, my wife and I actually have interests in common; Babies. Of course she prefers the people kind, grand babies, great grand babies, other peoples babies. Where we differ is that I prefer the mechanical kind. I seem to have this warped mind. Most often when I see a full size mechanical something or other, I have a desire to make a "baby one" of it. So I turn out babies as fast as I can work them into the schedule.

Today's baby picture is of a blacksmith post drill. The reason that they are called a post drill, is not because they were made to drill posts, but because they ware almost always mounted on a post or column the the old workshops. This one is a 2" scale model of a full size one in my collection of antiques. To give an indication of size, the base it is mounted on is 3/4" thick. I hope you like looking at it.

Bug!

That is one of those dangerous West Nile varieties. If you see one of them buzzing around, you had better arm yourself with some bug spray-- quick! Because as you can see they are hungry Buggers.

Work Bench

I ordered from Lindsay Publications, one of those wonderful "Model Engineering" books written by Henry Greenly in England, and published in 1915. That century old book is as interesting today as it was when it was new. In the first chapter Mr. Greenly discusses setting up a shop for model building; space, tools, machines, etc. One of the highly recommended machines was a hand shaper. Shapers must have become obsolete cause I could not find one, so I proceeded to make my own, by looking at the picture in the book. There were no dimensions given so I just had to guess at them. Therefore I do not know if it is the right size, but here is a picture of the finished "hand" shaper.



Another very important tool was a good bench vise, so I proceeded to make one of those to go along with the shaper.


Then they were mounted on my workbench. As you can plainly see, I'm now ready to tackle any small job that comes along.


Yes, the tools all work! The files for instance, are tips from needle files. The tin snips will cut foils, though its just hard to get your fingers through the handles. The brace actually has a working chuck with jaws like a full size one.
Birk

Unicycle Dude

At our place I try to have something of interest for every size and age of people folk, so why not a Unicycle Dude. The first picture shows a close up right after he was built. The second shows him on the high wire (cord) in one of the display buildings. One end of the cord is stationary, and the other fastened to a lever that moves up and down. That action causes his little legs to pedal that cycle as fast as he can back and forth across the building. He has pretty good sense of balance. He has only fallen of a couple times when someone bumped him.


What is not shown in the pictures is the mechanism that makes him go. Down on the wall is a little crank that is within easy reach of even little people. That crank is connected to gears and then a drive shaft up the wall to more gears and another crank and finally to the lever. You know, whatever it take to keep it mechanical. I'd post a picture, but that part does not photograph very well.
Birk