A few more (moving) parts

I spent better than an hour wandering the isles of one of my favourite stores yesterday. I was looking for an electric motor, a gear reducer, jack shafts, bearings and sprockets along with whatever else caught my eye. The purpose was to make next year's Sign Invitational 'MARVELOUS MACHINE' move convincingly. Since we don't normally do this kind of thing I was pretty much making it up as I went - which is always the most fun way to do things.

I brought the many pieces home and then set to work. I measured things up and then designed a myriad of steel brackets and other bots and pieces. By the end of my time in the shop the motor was mounted along with the gear reducer. The vertical cylinder was also mounted to the top of the steam dome and I had built a working camshaft for the piston. By the next session it is my hope to give it all a test drive.

It is of course still all very plain looking for there is still much yet to be added. Think it it as the first layer of a cake, without any fancy icing. There's lots of eye candy to come. This is a whole lot of fun!

Three generations

While It is important to us that we get to do what we love each day, the fact that we are able to do it with those we love is even better. Not all families can work with together but at our place it is how we roll. Last week we were out in the yard measuring up for Hailey and Peter's new house. Everybody was helping and offering their point of view. Everyone's opinion counted. Working together makes for a whole lot better result.

And the fun begins anew

My favourite method of designing and building fun projects is to start with the barest of ideas - only a general direction really and then start building. Design continues as I proceed, things are added as they come to mind and of necessity. It will be done when it is done and not a minute before.

These kinds of projects can't be accomplished in a hurry for that wouldn't allow for the happy accident kind of construction this is. They can't be done by working on them continuously. They are best done in fits and starts between other tasks. A piece like this requires lots of thinking and research time. The key is to know your destination without worrying about how you will get there. The journey is the fun part of the prize.

With only ten and a half months to go before the public debut at the 2018 Sign Invitational in Orlando I began serious work on my entry today. The sketch of my first inklings was done in a few moments while at this year's event. With those initial ideas in mind I went out back to our metal boneyard to see what was lying about. I found some lengths of various sized pipe, a few steel elbows and plenty of nuts and bolts. These were measured up and I began to design the first cutting files. While the CNC plasma cutter did it's magic I began to weld the beginnings of my 'MARVELOUS MACHINE'. What is it and what does it do? It will be obvious when I am done. :)