Designing and Building a Pendulum…

So it’s been a VERY long time since my last post, but I have not stopped working on this thing little by little and I’ve made some real progress I think.

Notable but less visible of changes, the door now has hinges. I know the toy uses magnets, and it was an idea, but I think for practicality and safety (this will have glass in it) a more permanent real-world solution would be a little bit better.

Next, I’ve worked with someone who’s stuff I’ve seen on IG (I’m not sure if the RPF lead me to them or not, I THINK so?) but their mansion 3D prints are spectacular, Doug and Jessica Hogan (@prototypes_and_pixie_dust) • Instagram photos and videos
I’d commissioned the pendulum from them as I don’t think carving that from wood would be at all practical, and since it’ll be covered in brass(?) paint, I think a print is probably the best solution. I couldn’t be happier with this thing, it looks amazing. A couple pics back and forth and this is what we came up with:

01-sketch.jpg

working from the original on Flickr at:

Haunted Mansion Grandfather Clock, Disneyland

zoomed in:

00-real.png

after a week or so of passing ideas back and forth I was hit with the following image:

02-printed.jpg

and I couldn’t be happier.

I used a roll of copper pipe and just from unwinding it I had a pretty perfect serpentine that was close enough to the real thing that all I ended up doing was drilling a hole to mount it at the top of the box (later on I’ll be building a motor for articulation) and squeezing the pendulum on.

03-testfit.jpg

and this is where we’re at after that!

04-longshot.jpg

I’ve spent a lot of time over the holidays working on the base, and that’s coming along great. I’ll put up a post for that shortly!