Make Automata Toys How To Build Automata

Step 9: Take it to the next step Next Prev Secure the camTake your automata the next step by developing a character or story to go with the automatas movement.

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To see an honest historical automaton, one needs to visit the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, where Maillardets Automaton is displayed.

This automaton, built around 1800, is a masterpiece, able to write three poems and draw four drawings.

Building automata is a great engineering challenge that scales from child maker to adult in its complexity.

It varies in the types of materials from which it is built and the story the automaton tells through the machinerys movements.

This guide contains a bill of materials for constructing cardboard automata as well as images of five different movements and the assembly of cams and cam followers necessary to achieve the motions.

Make Automata Toys How To Build Automata

People interested in teaching others how to build automata should watch The Tinkering Studios archived Google Hangout on Making and Tinkering with Automata.

Prepare to drill 2.

Drill the box 3. Cut the hanger 4.

Prepare the cam 5.

Insert the drinking straw into the box 6.

Step 2: Drill the box Next Prev Use the drill and a small bit to drill a hole in the center of the side of the box on both sides.

Drill a hole a about the same diameter as the drinking straw in the center of the top of the box, too.

It will fit through the two holes you drilled in the sides of the box.

Draw half circles on either end separated by a short rectangle.

Cut out the cam. Poke a small hole in the center of the cam for the wire shirt hanger to pass through.

Insert the wire shirt hanger into one of the holes on the side of the box, through the hole in the cam, and back out the other hole in the side of the box.

Step 5: Insert the drinking straw into the box Next Prev Cut a short piece of drinking straw.

Wrap the center of the straw in a couple of passes of masking tape.

Step 6: Prepare the bamboo skewer Next Prev Remove the sharp end of a bamboo skewer.

Hot glue the stack of squares to one side of the circular cam follower, at the center of the circle.

Cut several thin strips of cardboard as long as the cam follower is wide.

These guides help keep the cam follower straight over the cam.

If you do not mind the follower moving up and down and turning around you need not include these strips.

Step 8: Insert the cam and cam follower Next Prev Working from inside the box, insert the cam follower bamboo skewer through the bottom of the drinking straw and through the top of the box.

Secure the cam to the hand crank shaft with some masking tape.

How To Make Automata Toys