Michael Hengsbach from Berlin has posted a couple of comments on the Early Bird model as well as this splendid YouTube video. Michael has added a geneva stop drive to my Early Bird model, the result is just fantastic! Thanks Michael!
Useful Links:
Early Bird Blog Post
YouTube Video
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
Become a Member for free
access to this and other files on the site.See the Membership page for more details.
Already a Member? Log in Here
A ratchet driven paper animation kit to download, print out and make. Rock the ratchet handle back and forth and the early bird tries in vain to pull the worm from the ground. Members can download this model for free. Non members can buy the file for a small fee.
Print the parts sheets onto thin card. (230 micron/230 gsm.) Score along the dotted/dashed lines and cut out the holes before cutting out the parts.
Fold up and glue together the top and the base as shown above.
Fold over the tabs on both side pieces and glue them down to create triangular tube sections.
Fold round and glue together the two triangular pins.
Slide the pins into place through the triangular holes in the top piece. It is not necessary to glue them down.
Glue on the two sides, the red line lines up with the edge of the top piece. Notice how the side has a notch which lines up with the pin.
Glue the end cap into place between the two sides.
Glue the body top to one of the bird sides starting with the curved tab. Line up the edge of the curved tab with the edge of the body and with the small dot at the top of the body.
Fold round and glue together the leg supports.
Glue the leg support to the body side lining up the edge of the grey area with the end of the leg. Make sure you use the longer leg support on the longer leg!
Glue on the other side again using the dot for alignment.
Glue down the remaining tabs on the body top.
Fit the body to the top through the holes in the top.
Use the grey areas to line up glued areas.
Glue together the first 20mm of the beaks.
Fold the worm in half and glue it down to make a double thickness card. Once the glue is dry, cut out the two worm pieces.
Cut out the marked hole in the bird beak.
Fold the cam in half and glue down to make double thickness card. Once the glue is dry carefully cut out the part. (Like the nails ?)
Repeat the process with the two gears.
Fold up and glue together the cam follower. Glue the cam follower end to the grey area.
Complete the cam follower as shown.
Glue the neck to the body. Note the the centre tabs are folded forward.
Glue the head to the centre neck tabs using the dots on the head for alignment.
Glue the cam follower to the end cap.
Glue the small tabs to the end of the worm.
Fold a small dog-leg into the top end of the worm body.
Thread the worm up through the hole in the top. Glue the tabs on the end of the cam follower, thread the other end through the hole in the beak.
Glue the worm head onto the tab. Make sure you don't get any glue on the beak.
Glue together the square section of the crank shaft. Thread the cam into place on the crank shaft. Make sure that you put the cam on the right way. Note in the picture above the cam lines up with the red line and the yellow line is to the right. Glue two washers to the green rings on the crank shaft with the tabs pointing inwards.
Wrap a small (20mm diameter) in a small offcut of card and glue it to the front on the cam follower.
Fit the cam shaft into the box. In the picture above the purple ring is towards the front.
Glue on sides to the base.
Glue the cover into place.
Fold the pawl over and glue it to make double thickness card.
Glue the bottom of the secondary pawl to the base...
...the glue the top to the box side.
Thread one of the gears to the yellow ring on the cam shaft aking sure that the pawl is in place as shown
Fold over, glue down, and cut out the hole in the pawl housing. Fold over the top to make a triangular section then fold over and glue down the pawl to make it double thickness.
Thread the pawl housing over the cam shaft. Fit it into place with the washer.
Assemble the stop as shown
Fit the second gear to the cam shaft. Check front and back to make sure that the teeth are lined up.
Glue the handle into place. Positioning of the stop is more art than science. Hold it roughly over the marked area without gluing it. Rock the handle back and forth. Move the stop so that both pawls click as the handle is rocked. Once you have found the best location, glue it into place.
Your Early Bird is now complete!
Hold the handle, rock it back and forth and the bird will pull the worm from the ground a little at a time before the worm pulls back and the cycle begins again.
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
All the parts cut out and ready for photography. I've glued up the parts that I can prepare before photographs are taken. Time for a quick espresso then the final stage. Not long now.
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
I've made up a model from the final parts layout of the Early Bird model. It's working nicely. The next step is the last step. Colour and the instructions for constructions. It'll take a couple more days I reckon.
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
Okay, that's the parts done. I've opted for an open ratchet so that the curious user can see what is going on. Hopefully the you can see what is happening in the picture above. The housing, containing the pawl (with magnified picture, top right) rocks back and forth advancing the gear one tooth at a time as it does so. The two stops are there to constraint the movement. I'll be putting together a final test piece as I've made a couple of small changes to sizes then it'll be onwards with colour and final layout. Not long now!
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
More progress on the Early Bird model. I've ben working on the Early Bird as well as updating the mechanisms section of the website.
I've adapted one of my ratchet projects to fit on the side of the bird. Now that I see how it works (and that it works!) I'll be able to make it a more appropriate shape. It'll need a couple of stops on the body to limit rotation of the ratchet housing then I'll add a small handle of some type. To operate the model it'll be a case of moving the ratchet housing back and forth. Five teeth on the ratchet so five back-and-forths equals one full revolution on the cam.
On the other side of the model I've fitted a simple ratchet and pawl to stop the cam rotating backwards.
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
Last stages of the increasingly badly named Early bird!
I've fitted the snail cam into place, note the triangular cam follower. The sides marked are of equal length so that the push on the cam follower is the distance from the pivot point that I expect it to be.
Having put it together and established that it worked I have made a few small changes to the dimensions. These are the things that suck up the time. I've got loads of slightly different Early Bird models cluttering up my desk. That should keep the works at bay!
Ratchet next, and last.
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
I've been working on the Early Bird model. I've repositioned the bird further along the base and hooked up the worm.
I think I'll have to extend the box a little further so that it fully encloses the worm's hole.
I've made up a snail cam with a 15mm drop. Next step is to fit the cam into the box and add the ratchet. Fingers crossed that there is room!
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
I've been working on the Early Bird model as well as a couple of other projects which I'll tell you about later. Having worked out the bird, the worm and the mechanism it is matter now of fitting it all together.
My initial plan was to fit everything into a box like the one above. I've added triangular box sections to the sides of the legs for rigidity. I planned to extend the legs so that they would go through holes in the top of the box, I could then glue the legs to the sides of the two box sections to hold the bird into place.
The problem is that the box section is inherently flexible.
Triangles are good where things need to be rigid. To that end I put together this shape.
The sides are nicely rigid but the centre flexes horribly.
By cutting small holes in the side of the tube sections I was able to add a second, smaller tube section running across the base. Looking good!
With the base and bird complete I could then glue the two together.
This will be a case of function leading form. The box I had originally planned is now gone. I'll suspend the cam follower and worm from below the base. I plan to make the ratchet and cam as a separate unit then join the two together using a couple of vertical beams.
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
Further adventures with the Early Bird model. I've been trying different ways of of linking the worm to the bird's beak. Two ideas made it from the drawing board to the prototype stage.
First, I tried cutting a notch in the beak, wrapping a loop of card round the beak and gluing it first to the worm body then gluing the head on the other side of the beak. This made a flexible link which is what I was after but as I was testing it the loop slipped off the beak a couple of times. Not what I want in the finished model.
The second alternative, I've cut a slot in the beak and threaded a couple of back to back tabs through it and onto the worm's body and head. This works just as well as the other technique with the right balance of flexibility and rigidity but has the added advantage that the worm can't slip off the beak. Choice made. Box next.
Keep up to date: Receive the latest blog post by email
Rate this post:
