Making Mechanical Marvels In Wood - DIY Book

Here's a book that should interest you makers out there. Making Mechanical Marvels In Wood

This book is not unlike Making Wooden Mechanical Models which I reviewed here. There are, however, some important differences between the two books.

Like Making Wooden Mechanical Models, this book isn't specifically written for automaton makers. Both books feature basic wooden machines as finished projects in themselves.

Making Mechanical Marvels differs in that many of the projects in this book are key building blocks to making contemporary wooden automata. For example, projects such as the cam and follower, the Scotch yoke, the fast-return actuator, and the Geneva wheel are all elements often found in an automaton.

The projects in this book are very handsome and would make nice gifts. There's something inexpressibly classy about machines made of wood.

I bought Making Mechanical Marvels bundled with Making Wooden Models from Amazon.com and I'm glad I did. The two books really compliment each other. I consider this book to be Volume 1. This book has very clear instructions and drawings to get you up to speed making wooden mechanisms. Making Wooden Models is equivalent to Volume 2 in which you tackle some more complicated projects.

The book has well-drawn line diagrams and a series of color pages in the center. The instructions are very well written; I would feel good about giving this book to a new woodworker or youngster looking for a science fair project.

The book concludes with some handy shop tips and jigs -- a nice bonus. I have learned a great deal from this book. Don't overlook it as a resource for building wooden mechanism.

Here is where you can order Making Mechanical Marvels In Wood.

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Automata and Mechancial Wood Toys from Japan

The automaton shown here is sold by a Japanese web site by the name of hands*pico. There is also a movie file showing this chicken automaton (.wmv) in action and the music box that drives the piece.

The hands*pico site has many automata, wooden toys, marble runs, and other great wooden products. There are many nice videos in the .wmv format distributed throughout the site.

Visit hands*pico to see Japanese automata and wooden toys.

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Making Wooden Mechanical Models

Not for automata makers specifically -- the mechanisms found in Making Wooden Mechanical Models could well be used for automata, provided the reader has a bit of ingenuity.

The models themselves are nicely proportioned and well designed. Any of these models would be a welcome addition to the desktop of a mechanically inclined person.

I have read this book from cover to cover and browsed the drawings for inspiration. Beautiful color photos in the center of the book demonstrate the skill the authors have great in fabricating with wood. I have found this book to be very useful in this regard. Note: some of the projects in this book are best accomplished with a lathe.

Should you choose to buy this book and make the some of the models, you will find that it contains good project lists and plan drawings from which to work.

Amazon has a nice "Search Inside" this book feature for this book to let you preview the book's contents.

Take a look at Making Wooden Mechanical Models: 15 Designs With Visible Wheels, Cranks, Pistons, Cogs, and Cams.

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Retro Wood Pinball-Style Baseball Game

There is something charming about how direct everything is in this retro pinball-style baseball game.

Based on the picture, I gather that the "pitcher" uses the plunger at the base of the machine to launch the ball up and around so that it comes out the hole in center field.

The "batter" then uses the bat-like flipper to hit the metal ball. Where ever the ball ends up determines the outcome of the play.

I've seen a few of these online. This one seems to have a few more ramps, holes, and details than the others.

From Back to Basic Toys:
"Award Winning Old Century Baseball....Crafted with aged woods and metals, this exquisitely detailed pinball-style table top game pays homage to those golden years of baseball... Use the flippers to hit doubles, triples, and homers; scoreboard and score book let you keep track of the action! Comes with three marble-sized steel balls. Size 21"l x 22"w x 12"h."

You can also upgrade your machine to feature the Major League team of your choice on the scoreboard. I wish they had obscure retro Minor League team names too.

Check out the Old Century Baseball pinball style baseball game.

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Cubical Warfare Goes Medieval/Mechanical

ThinkGeek is selling these working scale replica kits of Medieval siege engines. Seen here (clockwise from the right) are a Trebuchet, Catapult, and Bastilla.

From ThinkGeek.com:
"These kits let you bring back all the fun of flinging. Each one can assemble in just a few hours, and provides a fantastic scale model of an actual war weapon of yore. The catapult is perfect for chucking balls of paper and other small objects over cubicle walls. The trebuchet is better for long range targets (like the water cooler or networked printer). And, all you need to put them together are some strong fingers (or pliers), a cutting tool, and glue (not included). All three kits are perfect for showing your love of retro weaponry."

Sounds like fun to me!

Visit ThinkGeek cube warfare toys section to see all of these awesome wooden kits.

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Interactive Gear Template Generator

Matthias Wandel's excellent site has an interactive gear template generator "intended for generating paper templates for cutting low precision gears from plywood, phenolic, or other suitable materials with a band saw."

This elegant online tool allows you to input a handful of values to generate involute gears of various sizes and teeth. Most likely, you will want to check the "Two gears" checkbox and punch in the gear ratio (as number of teeth). You can then check that the values will create a gear pair that won't jam by checking the "Animate" checkbox. If you see the teeth of one gear overlapping the teeth of the second, you need make some adjustments.

This tool uses printer-friendly Flash. Use the on-screen "Print gears" button to print out only the gears and not the entire web page.

He even shows how to cut the wooden gears on the bandsaw.

Generate some gears to cut from wood using the Interactive Gear Template Generator. [via Make Magazine's blog]

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Auotomaton of Nosferatu Rising from His Coffin

Take a look at this unconventional little wood automaton. The mechanism is housed in Nosferatu's coffin. This is a hand-held windup automaton. Clever!

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Hand Cranked Marble Machine with Wood Gears

Matthias Wandel, the same guy that has one of the only detailed online articles about cutting wooden gears, has made an amazing marble rolling machine.

I don't normally post about rolling ball machines because they are a complete topic unto themselves with some great web sites fully dedicated to the subject.

This machine stands out for two reasons:

1 - It has wooden gears, so I HAVE to post about it.

2 - It is hand cranked like many automata.

Here's a link to the Marble Machine 2 page. I learned about it from the blog over at Make Magazine (my favorite).

Here's the video of the Marble Machine.

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Making Wooden Hinges

Here's a great article from Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts Magazine describing how to make hinges out of wood.

The article has complete step-by-step instructions with photos and a scale drawing that you can photocopy and use as your cutting template. The project assumes you have access to scroll saw.

Here's a link to the article: Make Wooden Hinges

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Wooden Gears Supplier Online

I've been reminded by fellow automata-maker Dan Torpey over at Barking Dogs Automata that wooden gears can be purchased from Patriot Mill Cogworks in New Hampshire, USA.

I ordered some of these a few years ago, but had lost track of their website. I'm glad to have found it again and to share it with my readers.

The cherry gears I ordered have mineral oil finish and are still beautiful. Look closely inside my piece A Boybot and his Dogbot and you will see three of these gears. (This is only piece I used them on to date.)

Though their site features educational kits composed of wooden gears, axle pegs, and pegboards, I believe you can order individual gears, as I did.

Happy Cranking!

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Box Joint or Finger Joint Jig for Wood Boxes

I am experimenting with something similar to this jig to make the boxes to hold automata mechanisms. While hand-cut dovetails are the joint of choice, box joints -- or finger joints as they are sometimes called -- offer an interesting alternative.

Box joints are very strong once glued because there is so much surface area for the glue to bond to. I think they look good too because the end grain alternating with the regular grain creates a nice pattern.

I'll let you know how my testing goes. If any of you have experience with box joints or box joint jigs, let me know. This one is used in conjuction with a table saw and dado blade or a router table.

This is one option, the WOODSMITH Aluminum Box Joint Jig at Woodcraft.com

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Clocks with Wooden Mechanisms Roundup

With the recent post about the wood pocket watch, I thought I would share some information about wooden clock resources I've found online.

While not strictly automata, the mechanisms and material make wooden clocks a worthy topic in my book.

If you know of other sites, leave a comment or send me an email and I'll add it to the list.

• www.clockplans.com
• www.woodenclockworks.net/
• www.brendanreilly.ca
• Gary's clocks
• www.wooden-gear-clocks.com
• Houtman Designs - Peg-gear-clock
• Clayton Boyer's Clocks
• Marc Tovar's Wooden ClockWorks
• Rabbit's clocks
• Wooden Grandfather Clock
• Brian Law's Woodenclocks
• Blogging the The Ascent - A Wooden Clock Kit
• Wooden clock ( # 39 )
• Steebar.com
• Patriot Mill Cogworks
  

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Amazing Pocket Watch with Wooden Movement

I have seen many nice all-wood clocks, but this was beyond my imagination...a pocket watch made entirely of wood.

I am not talking about the face or the case, but nearly all of it -- gears, escapement, ratchets.

They were apparently made in Russia around 1900. I wish I knew more about it, especially the size, type of wood, how many were made, and if it still works.

I learned of this amazing bit of artistry via a long series of links. In order of discovery they were:

BoingBoing.net to...

The Watchismo Times blog to...

Odd Watches

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Locate Rockler and Woodcraft Retail Stores

My two favorite woodworking stores sell online and have many retail locations. While shopping online is fun and easy -- handling the tools and selecting your own wood can't be done over the internet. I recommend you find a Rockler woodworking store or a Woodcraft woodworking store near you. Here are some links to help you.

Woodcraft has a great selection of hand tools, especially for carving. In most stores you can handle the tools. They also host courses and demonstrations.

Locate a Woodcraft woodworking store

Rockler specializes is jigs and accessories for you power tools. The retail location near me has a fantastic selection of choice woods.

Locate a Rockler woodworking store

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