Little Bee Stemist Blog: February 2016

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

My Tenth Tinker Lab

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Hope you enjoyed the gravity video, please like and comment. Bye guys! <3
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Friday, February 19, 2016

Automaton Time! : Part 3

ART AUTOMATON

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To make the art automaton, I needed....
- 2 dowels
- Cams
- 2 cardboard pieces
- Straw
- Zip tie
- Tinker crate (Lid cut off)
- Craft knife
- Masking Tape

Positioning the box so one of the sides faces up, I cut two round holes halfway down from the top and half an inch away from the edge. I cut 2 1 in. straws to go through the holes. Then I slid the straws in the holes. Putting the short dowel on a short cardboard piece, I folded both sides up and tied them together with a zip tie. That's going to be the cam follower. Taking the long cardboard piece and folding it so the holes line up, I pushed the dowel through the holes. After that I taped the cardboard to the inside of the box. Then I cut a hole at the top so the dowel could move freely. Taking the long dowel and a random cam, I slid the dowel through one of the straws, the cam, and the other straw. If you turned the dowel, the cam will turn and the cam follower will move up and down. I had to make some art to complete the project.

If you saw my unboxing video, you may know the flap at the end of the tinker-zine is a cut-out page for the art automaton. There were butterfly wings, giraffe parts, an egg shell, monster, chicken, and a hat. The first cut-out art I did was the hatching egg.

The first thing to do was color in the shell and chicken. Then I taped the top shell to the head of the chicken. Taking the bottom eggshell and some tape, I taped the eggshell to the front of the box. Adding a piece of tape to the bottom of the chicken, I stuck it to the dowel. I had to use the cam that looked like a spiral to make the egg hatch. The other choice I had for the egg was the monster. The next thing I did was the nodding giraffe.

After I colored in the giraffe parts, I took the craft knife and cut a hole on the bottom of the neck and one on the top of the body. I attached the two parts together with a brad. The brad makes the neck move up and down. Cutting another hole in the middle of the neck, I slid another brad through and attached it to the dowel. I used the egg-shaped cam for the giraffe.

The last one I did was the shivering penguin. I needed a photo of a penguin and the hat.
Cutting out the penguin and coloring in the hat, I taped the hat onto the penguin. I taped the penguin on the dowel and picked the decagon cam. As the cam turns, the penguin moves up and down so fast it looks like its shivering. I wasn't able to do the flapping butterfly because I didn't have a clothespin.

THE ANONYMOUS AUTOMATON

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Long ago, in November 1928, at a museum in Philadelphia, an unusual thing was unloaded. It looked like an automaton boy. A family (unknown) had passed it on for a long time, but the automaton was nearly destroyed in a fire. The family had donated it to the museum and told it could write poetry and draw beautiful pictures. Intrigued, the museum workers got straight to work to repair the automaton. After they fixed it, they turned it on and stared in amazement as the boy drew picture after picture. Who made this amazing automaton? They never knew until they saw the boy write a poem in french.
At the bottom of the poem, in french, it said, "Written by the automaton of Maillardet"

Henri Maillardet was around in the 1700's. He was a Swiss clockmaker and made amazing automatons. The automaton boy is still around today. It is on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

This is the drawing automaton boy. It's probably how Hugo was thought of.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you did please like and comment. In the next post I'll have a new tinker crate. Bye guys! <3
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Automaton Time! : Part 2

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Hey again guys! Today I'll show how I made my automaton. Near the end of the post, I'll have a video on how it works.

For the frame, I needed...

- Tall support piece
- Short support piece
- 2 side wall
- Cardboard brace
- 7 cardboard spacers
- Cardboard locking piece
- 8 sticky foam squares

I needed to lay out the tall and short support piece so the slits in the pieces faced out. Adding a piece of sticky foam under each notch in the wood, I flipped the tall piece over and attached side walls to it. The foam keeps the pieces in place. After the tall support piece was added, I put in the cardboard brace in between the side walls, then I added the small support piece. Taking seven cardboard spacers, I put them through the vertical slits in the side walls. To make sure the spacers stayed in the slits, I turned the frame around and attached them all with a cardboard locking piece. The next part of the automaton was the crank.

For the crank, I needed...

- Wood crank piece
- 6 wood cams
- 12 rubber O-rings
- 4 sticky foam strips
- Completed frame

Turning the automaton back around again, I slid the crank piece through the hole at the bottom of the short support piece. To make the part of the automaton that moves up and down, I slid a O-ring to the closest notch near the handle. I had to also slide a cam facing down and another O-ring through the crank to the first O-ring. Repeating the steps, I alternated in between cams facing up and down until I got all six cams on the crank. The O-rings keep the cams on the crank. Finding two wide notches in the crank, I sandwiched the notch closest to the last cam with two sticky foam strips. To keep the crank on the automaton, I slid the crank through the other support piece and sandwiched the other wide notch with the other two foam strips. I just needed to add the stairs and the chute and the automaton will be complete!

For the chute and stairs, I needed...

- Almost complete automaton
- Stair pieces
- Clear stickers
- Chute
- 2 sticky foam squares

Making sure the stairs all slanted to the left, I ordered the stairs from biggest to smallest from left to right. Adding a sticker on the bottom of each stair, I slid the stairs into the automaton and on the stairs. Taking the chute and adding a piece of foam above each notch, I slid it in the slits in the automaton. THE AUTOMATON IS COMPLETE!!!! Here is a video on how it works.

As the crank turns, three of the cams go up while the other three go down, and vice versa. The way the stairs are positioned makes the balls fall down the stairs, instead of go up them. It's a really cool automaton!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I hope you enjoyed this post about my automaton. If you did please like and comment. I'll see you in the next post. Bye guys! <3
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Monday, February 1, 2016

Automaton Time! : Part 1

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Hey guys, welcome to another post. Today I'm talking about my Automaton tinker lab.

Did you know that Automaton stands for "self moving?" Automatons have been around for many years, like the "Jack-in-a-Box." Whenever you turn the crank, you can hear a clicking sound in the box. That's the sound of the turning gears and cams. After a certain time, the jack will pop out! That's the work of an automaton genius! Let's see some more Automatons.

HANDWASHING AUTOMATON

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The hand-washing automaton was made in 1206 by a man named Al Jazari. The automaton looked like a woman beside a basin of water. If you switched it on, the basin would empty out all the water and the woman would refill it with a water pitcher. Do you know how Al made the basin empty out the water? He made a flush mechanism just like the mechanism in our modern toilets. Al Jazari was a genius!

This is the flush mechanism for the
automatons.

THE PLEASURE GARDEN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the 1200's, Robert II, added a place to his castle known as "The Pleasure Garden." There were many automatons, like monkey marionettes, a self-playing organ, mechanical birds, and many more things. The pleasure garden lasted until the 15th century before the English army destroyed it. If it survived until today, what do you think it would be like?

DA VINCI'S MECHANICAL KNIGHT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In 1495, Da Vinci had made a mechanical knight. The knight had a suit of armor hiding a complex set of cogs, cams, pulleys, and other things. It could stand up, sit down, and move it's head. Cool!! Da Vinci was a genius!

THE DIGESTING DUCK

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Digesting Duck was made in 1739, by a man named Jacques de Vaucanson. Somehow the duck was designed to eat pieces of grain and somehow defecate it. ( Gross!) Voltaire, a famous writer once said....

"Without the duck of Vaucanson, You

would have nothing to remind you of

the glory of France."

...France is definitely inventive, perhaps glorious too.

Thank you Vaucanson!

MECHANICAL TURK

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Mechanical Turk was made in 1769, by a person named Kempelen. (Last name unknown.) It was a chess playing master and amazed crowds with it's chess skills. Later in the 19th century, people found out it wasn't an automaton at all! The Turk was just a machine operated by a chess master hiding inside it! In 1850, it was destroyed in a fire.

This is a recreation of the Turk.
It was designed so someone
could sit under the table
to play chess. TURK JERK!

THE CUCKOO CLOCK

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one knows when the first cuckoo clock was made. Cuckoo clocks had an automaton bird in the clock that would move and/or flap it wings and sing on the hour. It must have been very complex clockwork. No one knows when the tweeting timepiece was invented. I always wanted my own cuckoo clock.

People still make and celebrate automatons today, like dragon automatons having tea! I think it's weird. Which automaton is your favorite?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
I hope you liked this post where I talked about different automatons. If you did, please like and comment. In the next post I'll talk about my automaton blueprint. Bye guys! <3

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\