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View Full Version : Wood that Works Kinetic sculptures


Bob Knodel
04-29-2008, 4:54 PM
Have any of you seen these? I was in Newport Oregon this weekend and viewed a few of his sculptures at a gallery. It was facinating. My wife looked at me while I was eying them trying to figure out how they worked and told me to close my mouth before I drooled:D. Anyway, if anybody knows how the mechanism works I would like to know.

Bob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXq-6yRI-VM&feature=related
Josiah Bartlett
04-29-2008, 5:54 PM
It looks like the one in the utube link has a power source hidden in the hub, and the arms are carefully balanced so gravity provides the "gearing" to keep them from interfering with each other.

Those are neat.
Brian Kerley
04-29-2008, 6:50 PM
Ok, so the device in the bottom left is actually what powers the whole thing. There is some wire going from those arms up to the middle, which causes it to turn. Then, through weighting probably, the outer pieces spin. Of the six spinning pieces, three are mounted on top of the other three to keep the things from colliding.
Bob Knodel
04-29-2008, 7:18 PM
He has some sort of spring mounted behind the sculpture that makes it turn. The lower left portion of the sculpture is what you turn to wind it up. He notes that it take roughly 24 turns for 4 hours of operation. I would love to see one of these dismantled.
Kevin Groenke
04-29-2008, 8:01 PM
On a related note you might check out the work of Theo Jansen. These walk, powered by wind. Amazing, beautiful feats of simple engineering multiplied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK4V2YUA5U
Bob Knodel
04-29-2008, 11:08 PM
On a related note you might check out the work of Theo Jansen. These walk, powered by wind. Amazing, beautiful feats of simple engineering multiplied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK4V2YUA5U

I saw his video on woodthatworks.com. Cool stuff. One more step toward the Terminator:D
Brian Effinger
04-29-2008, 11:33 PM
Have any of you seen these? I was in Newport Oregon this weekend and viewed a few of his sculptures at a gallery. It was facinating. My wife looked at me while I was eying them trying to figure out how they worked and told me to close my mouth before I drooled:D. Anyway, if anybody knows how the mechanism works I would like to know.

Bob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXq-6yRI-VM&feature=related


On a related note you might check out the work of Theo Jansen. These walk, powered by wind. Amazing, beautiful feats of simple engineering multiplied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK4V2YUA5U

WOW! Those are freaking cool :cool:
Bob Knodel
04-29-2008, 11:57 PM
OK so I read up a little more on these things and apparently they are powered by a thing called a Negator spring. The artist makes the model on a computer program and works the patterns and motions out. He then makes patterns out of a cheaper material and puts together a test run. After working the bugs out he makes the real thing. I think I may read a bit more about how these sculptures are made and give it a try. It looks like a lot of fun.
Roger Warford
04-30-2008, 12:48 AM
Thank you Bob and Kevin. Amazing.