Kinetic Non-Swap (Craftalong)

Wow! It’s impressive!

In a blatant attempt at extra credit points, I have a second entry!
video in motion:
https://wingsnthings.tripod.com/pictures/catsmore.htm

Mt. Catsmore


The mechanism that rotates the heads and sets the tails swinging:

Designed in Tinkercad, 3d printed, and joined with jump rings and head pins.
I’m getting the hang of moving toys! Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Next project; figure out how to make and upload video.

More pix at Mt. Catsmore

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This is such a cool project! It’s so clever and I just love those cat faces you’ve made!

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The little kitty tails hanging down! Hahaha! That is so clever!!

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That is awesome!!! I’ve been ill (not COVID), and haven’t finished my project. But I was looking at it earlier today, and I’m going to try to finish it by tomorrow.

Anyone else still working?

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I’m hoping to assemble at least one model from my kit this week. And, for a STEM/STEAM project in 2 weeks, my students will have to design and build a kinetic model of some sort. It can be anything, as long as it moves. Then, I might introduce more formal mechanisms.

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Hey, that’s cool! Can’t wait to learn more about your project, and about what your students make.

I put together the Pegasus automaton kit I bought a few weeks ago.

I still might paint and decorate it… or maybe not. We’ll see.

It was faster to put together that I thought (although the diagram had one error that threw me off for a while). About 1.5 hours, taking my time and not hurrying.

If you want to see it in action, I’ve included a link below. (I have no affiliation with this company.)

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It’s so much bigger than I expected it to be! I’m surprised you finished it so quickly. It’s awesome. Thanks for the link. It moves beautifully.

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I’m hoping that they come up with some creative projects!

And, that Pegasus is amazing. It’s so cool how they make such an elegant model with a relatively simple mechanism. That’s for posting the link to how it moves!

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Just realized I have had this book for awhile & never shared! It is good. Intelligent instructions, good diagrams & labeling, and teaches you about the machinery involved.

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This book is a dream!

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Yeah, it looks awesome!

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I googled that book and found some PDFs, looks like they are FREE!!!

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That’s cool that they offer free PDFs!

It was suggested that y’all would like the Flapping Pterasaur that I sent my partner in the Dino Swap.
Concept

Finished

If you tug the bead, it is supposed to flap for a little while due to balance and counterbalance. Somehow I managed to me the balances up a bit on the last step so it only flaps when being actively tugged. :roll_eyes: Maybe I’ll try again some day.

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Ooooh, just spotted this craftalong and now I’ll have to play. I love making automata. If you haven’t found it yet, Rob Ives is another amazing source of both inspiration and how-to.

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I’m having similar problems with a flapping butterfly. I think the weight of the body plus bead needs to balance some percentage of the wings. Try adding extra weight (like clothespins) to the bead cord and see if that helps. Or have your partner try it and report back.

I’ll let her know. Thanks.

I had a storebought pterasaur flapper as a kid! It was pretty cool, but made of printed cardboard which eventually warped until the wings were too curved to flap properly.

There was a seagull flapper made of wood at Port Aransas or Corpus Christi years ago that was fascinating. It had multiple birds flapping in unison.

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