Spinner
An #EssentialMechanism Project
The Essential Mechanism section on www.robives.com has a whole selection of paper projects each with an interesting paper mechanism ready for you to use as a starting point for your own character based paper automata. The Spinner is the latest addition to this collection. Pump the paper bellows in the base and make the turbine spin!
The project comes as a downloadable pdf with all the parts and instructions ready for you to print out and make. Paid subscribers to this newsletter can download the file at the foot of this page, thanks for your support. The file is also available here free for members of robives.com or for £5 if you are not a member.
The Spinner Essential Mechanism is similar to the base mechanism that I used in these two projects which I created for Brother International. They are available free for you to download from their website here. Both these downloads are bellows based spinners. Pump the bellows to make the bees circle the flower in the first model and the two birds circle in the second.
Before releasing the Essential Mechanism Spinner I spent a bit of time working out ways of transferring air from the bellows to the turbine wheel. By blowing gently on the wheel I could make it spin quite fast so I was fairly confident I could improve on the design I used in the Brother projects
I tried a few different designs for the air outlet but ended up with a modified version of this. The air comes out of the corner of the airbox up the tube and out through the double doors. In the final version I only used the single right hand door. The result is surprisingly effective. A gentle pump of the bellows sets the turbine spinning enthusiastically!
This project is designed as a starting point. The two Brother projects above show possible extensions to bring the model to life. Other ideas that might be worth trying, how about a pair of dogs chasing each other around and around or perhaps a pirouetting dancer? Over to you now to see what you come up with!
I do hope that you enjoy this project! It has been fun putting it together. Become a paid subscriber to this newsletter now and you will be able to download the Spinner file below and get started straight away making your own design. Paid subscribers have access to all the dozens of downloads in the previous newsletters and if you opt for annual subscription I’ll be happy to set you up with a free membership of my website www.robives.com where there are over 500 projects for you to explore. You’ll need to contact me to request membership as I still haven’t worked out how to do this automatically.
Thanks for your interest,
best wishes
Rob