Drawing machines in action!

Today was the day to do final tweaks and then put the machines to use... I am very pleased with the results, after a few little issues with the setting and gears moving ( still need to cap them off in the centre) I had them working and got some good results. I particularly like the varied output from the different configurations of the arms and using multiple pens at once.
1 First off the blocks was the machine formerly known as DM1... now known as Drawing Deck, partly because it kind of reminds me of a dj deck amd because it was partly inspired by the turntable drawing devices that have been kicking about..

The first tests were a success

  

 


I couldn't be much happier with this one to be honest, it is just what I was after.

Next, well, first techinically as I put this out first thing this morning and invited people to get in there and have a go with the camera pencils... people seemed eager and had fun doing it which was the entire point.. it created some lovely outcomes and people did a variety of different marks, this is an experiment I would like to replicate and scale up somehow. I do think that isolating each piece with a set of colours is the way forward.

Finally we have the Octo-sketch... in my opinion the weaker of the three but that may just mean that I need to rethink the concept, or the fact that I messed up the design a bit in that the centre holes in the long arms are not centred... but that's all in the past now... it does have an interesting dynamic and I am looking forward to seeing if it will indeed work with more than one person, it is not reliant on that so it can just be added to and can drag the other bits around... well, see for yourself...

Apologies for the rubbish video, I was holding it with one hand and trying to work the device and keep it from shifting...

 

It is basically a drunken compass... maybe that is what I should have named it!! Well, that's what I got up to today.

Assembling and testing final pieces

Over the past week I have been assembling and tweaking the finished pieces and I have to say I am mostly pleased with how they have turned out, there were one or two minor miscalculations but on the wole I think I nailed it.

I started off with this one and it was a really simple job that I actually overthought so once I stopped that and simplified it it was all smooth sailing, or should I say it ran like a well oiled machine! well... I say well oiled... I say machine...

So all I need to do is attach the broom head, varnish the cogs and strengthen the copper pins and set everything firmly in place and we're away. I call it 7 days and it's a sort of comment on the nature of work, spinning our wheels for 7 days pushing dust around and wondering what we are achieving at the end of it... the gears all turn but the device has no actual purpose other than to turn. So there's that.

apologies for the crap video. Anyway, earth shatteringly profound meaning aside, it is a fun piece that people can play with and hopefully it makes someone smile, someone other than me anyway.


Next... the drawing machines.
"Octo-Sketch" was the one that gave us trouble on the laser cutter, for some reason the machine was not down with drawing straight lines.. its own protest against man's inhumanity to man I suppose but I guess that's fair. after a few tries it was stopping time so I went back to the workshop.

laser doing its own thing

After cutting most of the straight pieces on the bandsaw and edging them up on the circular sander I glued each one together and then varnised the lot. A process that in total took a couple of days with the pieces of the other device as well so not too bad.

the original maquette I made for the octosketch device

I cut down the dowels with a knife so they'd fit and I really like the handmade look, it looks better than fluted dowels.

 The final piece with just a few of the arms attached, I am pretty happy with this one, except I accidentally misjudged the centre hole on the long arm parts and it is not perfectly centred which BUGS me but it does not affect the functionality and there is nothing I can do about it now so.. that's the deal there.

And finally the elliptical cog drawing device is nearing completion, I just need to figure the rivet arm attachments so they don't catch when it is turning and it will be done. That's this next week of activity. so I made a base for it and used thick copper wire to hold the gears in place, I am really excited about getting this one running smoothly and testing it out.

     just a bit of work left.

laying it out for a first look

centering

finished bases for both devices

coming together

I got started cutting all the parts for the final pieces the other day

The laser cutter is brilliant, it does have a mind of its own though and starts cutting wherever it likes, I thought that was pretty funny really.

I used 2 sheets of 3mm laserable plywood from Fred Aldous. Each gear is 2 pieces

So I got all the pieces and have now glued them together so each finished gear is 6mm. 

Lovely stacks of freshly cut gears, I did the design so it would look a little handmade but it does still fit and turn properly.  Now to configure and build the final piece and get on with the next one, the drawing machine.

I made the upright a few days later so that is ready to be put into its base and then get it all tidied up, need to make the little man who will rotate around the outside... and figure out how to do that...

I just measured the centre spaces between the cogs, set up a configuration then drew it centre to centre then widened it

carefully cut it all out on the band saw, not too badly i reckon.

sanded down, painted black and ready to go.

contraption number 1

Today I was able to get a first maquette done so am now more easily able to plan out my gadgets and contraptions, these hopefully will be done on the laser cutter with wood and painted. I'd like to make it look a little funky so the cogs are like rotary phone dials and you intuitively go up and start dialling it.. now I am still undecided as to whether or not it will serve a purpose, I think this one I think will not though. It is a combo of inspirations from Metropollis and Duchamp's Disks Bearing Spirals, I want the whimsical side, the piece for the sake of it, if it makes you smile it has worked. I enjoy watching the cogs go round and am really looking forward to building the real deals. I also feel a lot better about the brief in general, less stuck, floating and wandering, more focused so full steam ahead eh...there is  plenty of design work to go but at least the ideas will work, stay tuned for more mad machinery and weird artwork!