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Turn the handle and, through the magic of the flexible drive shaft, the hapless tortoise spins on her shell. Think of her as a break dancing turtle if you prefer to think happy thoughts.
Members can download the parts for free at the link. Non members can buy the parts for for £2.50. Have fun!
There are three parts sheets for this project. Print out either the colour or mono sheets as you choose. Note that the last colour sheet has colour printed on both sides. Print out one side, flip the paper over and return it to the printer to print out the other side on the back.
Print the parts onto thin card. (230 micron / 67 lb) Score the dotted lines and cut out the holes before carefully cutting out the pieces.
Fit the box strengtheners inside the box, use the picture in the next frame to help show where the box stiffener goes. It should be near the hole but not touching it.
Complete the box as shown
Repeat the process with the box top. The dotted line on the picture shows where the box stiffener sits. Notice that this part has a recessed area.
Fit the base to the box. Stand the box on a flat surface and make sure that the parts are at right angles to each other before the glue dries.
Assemble the two drive shaft ends in the same way. Glue a washer into place as shown. Glue two of the zig zag pieces to adjacent faces on the drive shaft as shown.
Assemble the cuboid that is the drive shaft joiner.
Fold the zig zag pieces over each other alternately so that each piece is folded four times.
Fold up the ends of the zig zag pieces at ninety degrees and trim them off to approx. one centimeter long.
Glue the ends to the drive shaft centre piece.
Repeat the process with the other drive shaft to make this three section flexible drive.
Fit the shaft marked 'Horizontal' into the main body of the box as shown. Fit a second washer to hold it into place.
Repeat the process with the other end of the shaft.
Glue the top of the box into place, make sure that it is square before the glue dries.
Assemble the handle in three steps.
Fold up and glue together the two box sections.
Glue one box section into the other at ninety degrees.
Roll round the long tab and glue it down.
Glue the handle into place on the box. You now have a completed mechanism which you could use as the starting point for your own projects. A spinning helicopter, a dancing couple a break dancing dude...
Carry on from here to add the spinning tortoise.
Assemble the two parts of the shell.
Fold up the legs and glue them at an angle using the grey area as a guide.
Glue the four legs into the body.
Assemble the head and the neck parts.
Glue the head to the neck.
Fit the head and tail into the body and glue them down. A chop stick is a useful aid in this job.
The completed tortoise. Wrong way up.
Complete the model by fitting the tortoise to the box. Turn the handle and watch her spin!
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Here's a quick clip showing the flexible shaft from the previous post in action. As an experiment I have added the same video but this time embed directly into the page rather than using YouTube. Let me know if you can see the video below. Thanks!
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In the previous blog post Michael42er used a flexible drive shaft to link models together. Inspired by his work I have put together a file of parts for you to try making your own flexible drive shafts. If you are a member you can download the parts file at the link.
Most of the project on this site use either an 8mm or a 10mm dirve shaft. I've put together parts for both. The ones in the illustrations below are for 8mm drive shafts.
Print out the sheet onto a sheet of thin card. (230 micron/67lb) Score along the dotted lines then carefully cut out the parts.
Make up a tube and add a washer around a third of the way down its length.
Plait the two card strips back and forth.
Once the spring part is made, add a blob of glue in the arrowed areas to stop it unravelling.
Glue one end of the zig zag spring to the shaft. Make up the shorter shaft and glue it to the other end.
Repeat the process with a second spring and shaft. Having a double joint like this lets you join together two models with drive shafts at different heights.
Use the flexible shaft to join two model together!
As well as the 8mm shaft shown here and the 10mm shaft there is also a pair of tapered pieces to fold up into a spring so that you can make a joint which reduces in size from one to the other.
Here's how Michael42er did it!
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