Heads up
Its alive! I spent the majority of this week strengthening the inner structure of this big fella, and getting the lights and motors in his head to work. The moment when the lights first come on is always a big one for me. Im still very much a child when it comes to shiny surfaces and bright lights.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
He now stands on an old dining room table top bringing his height to exactly 8 feet. Difficult to capture in these photos, but it makes for an impressive presence in person. The base will eliminate the need to bolt the piece to the floor for safety. It may also have wheels underneath to allow him to be more easily moved about.
Above is a brief video to demonstrate the action in the mouth and the sound that it produces. Still have to mount a spring to prevent it from going totally slack when the motor stops.
Below are some images of the steps required to get this far
Here is a detail of the mechanism that moves the jaw. I am finally learning to make these cranks with multiple settings rather than trying to perfectly calculate how much swing I will need before hand. This way I can kind of plow ahead, and fine tune it later.
I try to make these things as user serviceable as possible. The light source in the head is a standard bulb and socket from an old kirby vacuum. Two bolts remove his “Goggles” to allow access. The red color is provided by pieces of fiberglas from an emergency exit sign. I had to add little aluminum flanges to prevent light leaks from coming out around his eyes and tainting the effect.