Automaton Time! : Part 2

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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!

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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
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