Friend of the website and prolific modifier Michael42er has created a new paper animation, this time combining the Vertical Pendulum and parts from the Pneumatic Giraffe.
Nice work Michael!
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Vertical pendulum, Move the box and the main shaft at the front rocks up and down. This mechanism is destined to be used in the heart of a paper animation, perhaps a hopping frog or a moon walking spaceman. Build the project and bring it alive with your own character!
As usual, members can download the project for free, thanks for signing up. Non-members can download the parts for £2.50
Vertical Pendulum in action.
Print out the first two parts sheets onto thin card (230 micron / 67lb), the third sheet contains hinges, it should be printed onto standard 80gsm printer paper. Paper makes a good flexible hinge.
Glue the two pendulum pieces back to back then glue down the two side flaps.
Glue the paper hinge into place.
Fold the feet round and glue them down. Note that the creases are valley folds.
Glue the two sides to the grey areas on the base. Note that the writing faces towards the longest foot of the base.
Assemble the two struts and glue them into place on the grey areas.
Assemble the top piece and glue it into place using the grey areas for alignment.
Glue the pendulum so that it hands from the front strut.
Assemble the top link as shown. Note that the tongue is completed by folding over the tab and gluing it down to make double thickness card.
Assemble the bell crank as shown. The tongue is the same as the previous link. Glue two paper hinges into place as shown.
You'll need four coins as weights. UK 2p coins are perfect. 25mm in diameter, 7 grams in weight. Wrap each pair of coins tightly in an off-cut of card as shown.
Glue the coin packs to the pendulum front and back.
Glue the bell crank to the lower strut
It needs to be free to rock back and forth.
Connect the upper link to the upper strut with a paper hinge.
Thread the vertical shaft onto the two tongues and lock it into place by gluing the two tabs into place.
Glue the lower link to the front of the coin pack using a paper hinge.
Connect the lower link to the bell crank via the other paper hinge so that the top of the bell crank is sitting horizontally.
There it is! Move the model and the vertical shaft rocks gently up and down. Next step, add your own character!
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Here's the completed prototype for the vertical pendulum mechanism I'm working on. It's done and ready for photography but that's going to have to wait until morning. To keep you going in the meantime there are a couple of interesting issues that came up in the design/construction of the model.
Two design features: 1) A vertical shaft that moves up and down whenever the project is moved. 2) All wrapped up in a narrow package.
I've folded a bell crank back on itself which seems to work quite well. I'd still rather that the shaft was more central in the mechanism, ideally directly over the pendulum, but it is certainly useable as is.
Okay, first issue. You need a lot of weight to do anything useful. The greater the movement of the vertical shaft, the more weight is needed. This is an issue of maths and physics. The only way round it is to have the pendulum swing further causing other problems elsewhere. (Just had an idea about flywheels though - make a note!)
Second issue it to do with the stability of the model. I have four 2p pieces in the prototype, over 28 grams of your Sterling currency! All that weight tends to bend the card, just slightly, but enough to cause problems. The base flexes slightly causing the model to rock back and forth slowing the pendulum swing and stopping the movement early. (Picture above left) To get round this I've added feet front and back. (Right hand picture above) these provide a solid base for the rest of the model to sit on.
Feet under the base help keep the model steady.
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A pendulum powered pair of gnashing teeth! Move the box and the pendulum swings, opening and closing the box. Nom nom nom!
Members can print out the parts for free, thanks for signing up. Non members can download the parts for £2.50 at the link at the top.
Gnashing teeth in action!
Print out the first three sheets onto thin card, note that the colour version has both front and back pages. Print out the front of the sheet, flip the sheet round and return it to the printer to print out the back.
The forth sheet is for the hinges, print this into paper. The more flexible paper makes a better hinge than card.
Fold up and glue down the tabs at the bottom of the boxes to make triangular sections.
Join the two halves of the box together. Glue the box lid into place with the grey rectangle to the back of the box.
Fold up and glue together the pendulum hanger. Glue the hanger into the box so that the front edge lines up with the front of the box.
Assemble the pendulum. Glue the hinge to the grey area. Make sure you do not get any glue on the crease line.
Attach the pendulum to the pendulum hanger.
Assemble the lower jaw box. Glue the teeth into place. The grey face on the box is the lower face.
Glue the lower jaw box to the grey area on the top of the main box.
Assemble the upper jaw as shown above.
Glue the teeth into place. Note that the top of the box lines up with the top of the teeth.
Connect the two jaw pieces with the paper hinge.
Fold the coin holder tightly round two 25mm diameter coins. (approx 7 grams each) UK 2p coins are perfect for the job. Glue the coins to the front of the pendulum.
Assemble the push rod. Glue the hinge to the grey area as shown.
Glue the push rod to the grey area on the upper jaw as shown.
Close the jaw, threading the push rod through the hole in the box top.
Done! Once the glue is dry, move the box and the gnashers gnash!
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Further experiments on the theme of pendulums. I really wanted to create a pendulum powered model that bobs up and down when it is moved. Obviously, the first person that sprang to my mind when thinking about this possible mechanism was Ada Lovelace, mathematician and steam-punk computer programmer. And so we have, forthcoming project of a pendulum powered Ada Lovelace who bobs up and down whenever she is moved. Perfect.
Okay, mechanism time.
If I could use springs a vertical moving pendulum would be trivial but with card it is less straight forward. I need to convert the back and forth movement of a pendulum into up and down movement, and all within the space of Ada's conical section skirts.
My first draft is shown below with a bit of explanation as to why it was unsuitable. And so onto mk2. The go-to mechanism to change direction of movement by 90 degrees is the bell crank. The problem (there is always a problem, that is where the fun comes in :-)) being that the bell crank necessitates extra width in the model, making it hard to fit everything under the skirts. Above right and centre are my proposed solutions. Firstly, a pendulum with a cut out in the centre. Secondly, a bell crank that doubles back through the hole in the pendulum wrapping the mechanism neatly in on itself.
Notice also that I'm linking to the end of the main pendulum so getting the maximum amount of movement from any swinging going on.
I have bits cut out and ready to go - I'll be reporting back in the tomorrow.
Here's one that didn't work.
Well, it did work but it is far too bulky.
In this mechanism, the pendulum and the bell crank are a single piece. To get a reasonable amount of vertical movement the side arm needed to be long making the project over wide. To minimise the width I moved the pendulum right over to the side which also meant that the whole thing was unstable. Pah.
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Coming soon(ish)! Paper Models That Rock. My new book of pendulum powered projects is available for pre-order on the Amazon website. Other purveyors of fine books are available.
Amazon UK
Below are pictures of two of the six projects contained in the book. I'll be drip feeding more pictures and information in the months until release (May 2013) Until then enjoy the impatient Tapping Feet
and the Rocking Robin!
If you can't wait, have a look through the publications page here for something to keep you going.
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I was just searching my name on Amazon, like you do, and I came across this...
My new book! It's not out until next year but hopefully it will be worth the wait. I'll have a chat with the publishers and see if it is okay to release some pictures.
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>> Check out the mkII cow here! <<
A pendulum powered nodding cow for you to download, print out and make. Members can download this project for free, non-members can download the file for £2.50 at the link above.
The file comes with three variations. A line only cow for you to colour, a holstein type cow, shown in these instructions and a Jersey cow. Notice that the second sheet of the two colored cows has both a a front and a back. Print out one side, flip the card over and return it to the printer to print the other side.
Print the sheets onto thin card. (230 micron / 67lb) Score along the dotted and dashed lines then carefully cut out the pieces. This project doesn't need a sharp knife so may be particularly suited to younger people.
Glue the two neck pieces face to face. Make sure you only glue the body of the part together, not the tabs.
Glue the tail into place on the top back of the body.
Fold up and glue together the neck hanger.
Make two parcels from offcuts of card wrapped round a 20mm, 4 gram coin. I used a UK one pence piece for each parcel.
Glue the coin parcels to the end of the neck pendulum. One on each side. It is a little easier to see where the coins fit in the next picture.
Glue the neck hanger to the inside top of the body so that the long end is lined up with the end of the body. (Arrowed)
Glue the neck to the neck hanger as shown above.
Wrap the body round and glue it together so that the neck sticks out of the end.
Fold over the four legs and glue them together to make double thickness card. Once the glue is dry carefully cut out the legs.
Glue the leg stiffeners into place on the backs of the legs. Notice the leg stiffener for the front legs is the one with two crease lines. The stiffener for the back legs has only a single crease.
Glue the back legs into place making sure that they are lined up with each other and vertical. Notice that the top of the legs stick up a couple of millimeters above the top of the body.
Glue the front legs to the body. Stand the cow on a flat surface before the glue is dry and make sure that the legs are level.
Finish off the model by gluing the head to the tabs on the front of the neck piece. Line up the bottom of the chin with the end of the tabs in the position arrowed.
Once the glue is dry moving the model, however slightly, will set the head nodding. Moo!
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Why did the cows cross the road? My guess, they were going to the milking parlour. I was struck, as I sat waiting for the herd to cross the road in front of me, just how rectangular cows are. They are just a big box on four legs. It turns out that a cow shaped box is the perfect place to house a pendulum.
And so, I present to you...
Pendulum powered moo-vement!
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I've used a couple of different designs for coin holders in the past but recent models have used a simple fold of paper. After the coins fell out of my Chameleon model I was delighted to receive this much improved coin holder design from friend of the website, Dobbyknits
The dimensions of the parts depend on which coins you are using. Use the diagram aboveto work out the sizes.
Score along all the dotted lines then cut out the parts. Position the coins over the centre rectangles.
Fold up the sides and interlock the fingers.
The coin holder will then fold together making two coin holding pockets.
Glue the two inner faces of the coin holder to the end of the pendulum. Done!
I can see real advantages to this design, not least of which is that it is possible to lift the coins out after your model is complete. This could be handy, should you find yourself short of funds. Perhaps more importantly, if you need to post one of your models anywhere you can remove the coins before you pack it up. A loose swinging weighted pendulum tends to rip the model to pieces as it travels through the postal system. This will allow you to pack the coins safely away from the model.
Thanks very much for sending this in Dobbyknits :-) Watch out for it in future projects.
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