Building the Brain - a.k.a. "If I only had a
brain"
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I cut
the brain side panels out of sheet styrene. The frame is made out of
acrylic. Acrylic is really great to work with. You can cut it, drill
it and even tap threads into it. Here I have about 12 lights
installed. The local Radio Schwack ran out of sockets so I'll have to hit
up another one in town soon. |
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Well,
I had to visit 3 stores to find enough lamp sockets. There are 22 lamps
inside the brain and 3 that stick out the top. I tried to take a picture
with all the lamps on but some started blinking immediately. Also, two bulbs
were duds. |
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I took all the lights and sockets out so that I could glue the side panels
on. I filled several uneven spots (caused by the adhesive softening the
styrene from the back). It's about ready to be painted. I still need
to come up with some lenses. |
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I painted my Brain tonight. I used Dupli-Color T177 Gunmetal. It
came out pretty good. Re-installed all the light sockets and put back in
the blinking bulbs (type 258). I hooked everything up to a 12 V dc power
supply and cranked it up. Still no lenses for the "eyes".
I think I'll dissect a few "one-time use" cameras. I have several
laying around here. |
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I made my own light rods from
1/4 brass tubing. A screw type lamp socked was soldered onto a 5 inch length of
tubing. |
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I made the mold from two
pieces of clear acrylic. I clamped them together and drilled a 1/4 inch hole
down the center for the rod to pass through. I then used a larger drill and drilled
down about an inch. This creates the cavity for the lamp socket. The mold is
coated with a mold-release and it is allowed to dry before casting the part.
Be sure to check out my
New Silicone Rubber
Mold Making How-to Guide.
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The light rods are molded
from Castomold-FP, a flexible molding plastic made by Castolite.
Here's one of the rods being molded. The wood dowel sticking out the top was screwed
into the lamp socket and coated with mold release to prevent the plastic from sticking to
it. |
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Here's the light rod assembled
and painted. I think they came out great.
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The Brain Cone is made out of machined aluminum.
I plan on motorizing the light rods so that they will oscillate up and down. |
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To hold the light
rods in place and allow them to pivot, I put a groove around the inside of
the brain cup dead center through the seven openings. A piece of
piano wire will be strung through each of the light rods. I then filled up
the cup (while upside-down) with plastic resin to just under the rod
holes. |
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I drilled seven holes down through the top of the cup, and
through the plastic resin. These holes are for the push rods that
will raise and lower the light rods. Here you see the seven rods in
place, as well as the center shaft that the crown will be attached to. |
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Here's a quick video of my brain in action. The
speed is a little fast at this point. I built a DC motor speed
controller, but it is not hooked up for this video. WARNING,
the file is 500K. |
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FINALLY! I took a big step and drilled the mounting holes
in my bubble and bubble plate. Well, actually, I didn't drill the
holes but rather melted them in. I started by drilling the first hole
in the bottom plate and CRACK. It didn't go well. Just as I
feared. This was why I put off drilling it for over a year. But
I was fortunate to have it in a spot that does not show because it is under
the center brain cone. Not wanting to repeat the mistake for the
holes that show, I used my soldering iron to melt the holes in the plate as
well as the bubble. I then used a Dremel tool to round out and smooth
the holes. It went pretty well. |
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I used plastic
screws and inserts to connect the bubble to the bottom plate.
While not the same method as the original, I figured the less metal screwing
into the plastic bubble, the better. |
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Here's my bubble
(upside down) on my well padded workbench. As you can see, the clear
plastic screws blend in quite well. Tomorrow I hope to test fit the
brain into the bubble. |
