Daniel Busby

Tinkerings of a backyard scientist

Posts On Two Bit Circus

Engine Turning with a Fibonacci Pattern and LED Effects

8th February. By admin. Posted in Art, Kinetic Sculpture, Metalworking, Two Bit Circus.

While I was building the Robot Bartender for Two Bit Circus, I had to figure out an adequate backdrop for Gearmo. Our strengths lie with fancy LEDs, but how do we fill a space behind him. I had to find a solution that would be dazzling enough, yet do so on a budget. Someone in …read more

Fabricating a Large Slatted Welding Table

5th January. By admin. Posted in Metalworking, Two Bit Circus.

While working at Two Bit Circus, we had a need for a large welding table. Something that could fixture some large structures down. Since our games can be roughly 10′ wide, it made sense to make welding table 10′ wide to accommodate us. I decided on a slatted welding table so we could clamp almost …read more

Making a Kinetic Sign for Two Bit Circus

16th March. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture, Two Bit Circus.

One of the things that I’ve always wanted to construct is kinetic signage. People love to turn cranks and see stuff move. It’s fun and very satisfying. And signage is a perfect fit. Turn a crank, see something move, and associate a strong sense of enjoyment with the brand on the sign. What better way …read more

Building a giant Labyrinth game: Part 4 – Final

18th February. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture, Two Bit Circus.

The whole point of building this tipping mechanism was to drive a ball through a maze. Now I had to actually build the maze. The first thing I had to do was to sketch it out by hand on graph paper. I had to account for the thickness of the boards, the width of the …read more

Building a giant Labyrinth game: Part 3

1st December. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture, Two Bit Circus.

This is Part 3 of a series. You can start with Part 1 and Part 2. After welding up the basic frame of the Labyrinth game, I took the entire thing outside and gave it a quick coat of primer, so it wouldn’t rust. I knew this project was going to take a while, and …read more

Building a giant Labyrinth game: Part 2

24th October. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture, Two Bit Circus.

This is a continuation of Part 1 of this series. With all of the pieces cut, drilled, and welded to make the square frames of the labyrinth, it was time to start aligning the bearings that everything pivots on. I attached a pair of 1″ ID flange mount bearings to both sides of the holes. …read more

Building a giant Labyrinth game: Part 1

17th October. By admin. Posted in Kinetic Sculpture, Two Bit Circus.

I finally finished a large project. During the process I was intending to blog about the progress. Instead, I took photos and just let them build up. I’ve got enough photos that it makes sense to break them up into a few different posts. I hope you’ll bear with me. The goal was to build …read more

Geared Button Wall

5th April. By admin. Posted in Two Bit Circus.

For the past few years we’ve been dealing with buttons.  Moving, storing, sorting, picking through, and generally managing a large collection of castaway buttons from a previous company.  Some were usable, but many lacked the micro-switch that gives the button any functionality at all.  Why do I mention this?  Because having these buttons made us …read more

Playing around with a Jacob’s Ladder

21st March. By admin. Posted in Two Bit Circus.

I pulled out an old transformer that I had been saving for probably 10 years. I don’t even remember where I got it from. According to the tag on it, it has a 110V input but the output is 6200V rated at 82mA. I ran the input through a contactor (basically a beefy relay) so …read more

Amazon Ad

RSS Feed

Subscribe to feed
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Oren by Themeora.
 

Loading Comments...