#STEAMjunk Flapping Bird
A #STEAMjunk project
Turn the handle to make the Scotch Bird fly! The offset crank and double scotch yoke mechanism produce an organic flapping motion.
Premium subscribers can download the fully illustrated instructions for construction at the bottom of this page for free! Non-members can join in the fun for £5.00 or equivalent on the www.robives.com site here.
The project comes as a downloadable pdf file with clear instructions for you follow. You will need some poster tube, jumbo sized paper clips, 6mm glass beads, terminal blocks and offcuts of card and corrugated card.
The magic of the fluid flapping movement is created with a double crank shaft with ninety degrees offset.
The crank is used to drive two scotch yoke mechanisms. In a scotch yoke a pin on a rotating crank fits into the slot in yoke. As the crank turns the yoke is pushed up and down converting the rotary motion of the crank into up and down straight line motion in the yoke.
In this project the slots in the yoke are made from carefully shaped paper clip wire.
The two cranks fit into the centre section of these wire yokes. As the cranks are turns the yokes move up and down.
One yoke drives the outer section of the wings up and down, the second yoke drives the body ninety degrees later. The inner section of the wing are fixed to the tube, the result is a surprisingly realistic flapping movement.
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