A new volcano discovered at the bottom of the garden

A new volcano discovered at the bottom of the garden

To make the volcano diorama for the Dodo automata, I’ve been using up some offcuts of MDF. Using my original sketch, I sized up the background and cut that out, painting it with the blue silk paint I used for

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Sugru New Colours and Formula

Sugru New Colours and Formula

Tom from Sugru sent me some of their family safe formula Sugru. So I decided to use the new colours to make an Automata.

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Offensive Machines

Offensive Machines

This week I revisited Novelty Automation, for a talk by Tim Hunkin titled “Offensive Machines”. Talk Tim started out with a history looking at automata, amusement arcades and a variety of mechanical amusements. He included a couple of my childhood

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A new exhibition of amazing machines

A new exhibition of amazing machines

Novelty Automation is an experience to delight, bewilder and surprise. It is a cross between a penny arcade, art installation and Heath Robinson sketchbook.

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Books on gears

Books on gears

Dug North has been compiling lists of books on gears on his Automata blog so I thought I’d share them with you. http://www.dugnorth.com/blog/2009/04/list-of-books-on-gear-design-and.htmlhttp://www.dugnorth.com/blog/2009/05/more-books-on-gears-theory-and_06.html As you might expect for an automaton maker, Doug has written quite a lot on gears on

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Miniature Engineering

Miniature Engineering

In the process of looking for information about making my flea circus chariot I’ve tracked down a few other people who like to make small things. Charlotte and Martin Willmott made the papers recently with their models of tiny kitchen

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