Gypsy and Cambot Construction Page--Coming Soon (most of the information you need is here for Gypsy, but the diagram 1 link does not work)

At this time this page only contains information on the construction of Gypsy. The information on Cambot will arrive when I try to build the little bugger. Both of these bots are relatively easy to construct, well cambot is the easiest due to the fact that he/she/it is not a puppet.

Head--this part is the Century Infant Love Seat. It is a rather ugly car seat made in the early-mid ‘80s. The car seat supplies the head and the lower lip. By turning the outside of the seat upside-down, that become the top of the head. By cutting out the inner liner of the seat and attaching it to the top of the head with PVC pipe, the jaw/mouth is created.

Eye--This flashlight is the same flashlight that was needed for Servo. (the actual flashlight is used for Gypsy and the cover that surrounds the front of the flashlight is used for Servo)

Lip -- foam pipe insulation painted the appropriate color

Neck -- This is really the only tricky part of Gypsy’s construction. It is composed of an inner skeleton of various PVC pieces and attached to the head using a 6 inch square plastic floor drain. Then the entire structure is sheathed in 4 inch black plastic drainage pipe.

A. Head and Lip separation -- First thing that needs to be done is to drill out the pop rivets that holds the liner in the seat. Once the rivets have been removed you will have the two pieces that are required to make Gypsy’s head. (See Diagram 1) One more thing needs to be done before Gypsy’s head is able to be put together. The liner that was removed needs to be trimmed so that it will fit within the other car seat section. Compare (See Diagram 1) and (See Diagram 2) to see how to trim the liner. You can also see separate pictures of the finished top and finished lower lip for reference. Now remember you only have one shot at this so be careful.

B. Making the neck -- The first thing that needs to be done is to get the 6 inch square (or whatever you can find that will look good) plastic floor drain. Once you have gotten the floor drain then you know what size PVC pipe that hooks into it. The drain I found connects to 2 inch PVC pipe, I bought a 10 foot length of pipe just in case (it is a good idea due to the fact that building bots requires experimentation). Besides the floor drain and the pipe, to make the inner neck skeleton you will need a 45 degree joint that fits the size of pipe you are going to use. Besides the parts, you will also need to get the cement for the pipes and you will also need a heat gun. Use the pictures of the bots from the 96 convention on the pictures page to get an idea of what you want your Gypsy’s neck to look like. Next make scale measurements of sections between the bends in Gypsy’s neck on the pictures page , with these scale measurements you can calculate the actual lengths that are needed for the pipe(the calculations would be based on some constant such as a certain area on Gypsy’s head). To make the entire inner skeleton I used just 5 feet of pipe (the rest of the pipe was used to experiment). Leading from the floor drain I have a 6 inch piece, then the 45 degree joint, then the remaining 4 foot 6 inch piece. To make the rest of the curves on Gypsy’s neck use the heat gun to alter the straight PVC. To do that just figure out where the bends in the pipe should be with the scale calculations, then heat the pipe with the heat gun. When heating make sure not to over heat the pipe so it would be gooy. Heat the pipe evenly (that is all the way around) and once the pipe starts to get soft (but not too soft) bend it. After you get the pipe bent to your satisfaction immerse the bend in cold water to set the bend. If you do not put the bent segment in water it will tend to straighten out. I cannot stress planning everything out too much. If you have all of your measurements done and marked out on your pipe and an idea of what this should look like in your mind, you will save yourself a lot of aggravation and bouts of swearing. Once you have all of your pipe bent, DON’T GLUE IT TOGETHER! Now is the time to get out your long segment of 4 inch black bendible drain pipe and cut it to match the length of the PVC skeleton. Once you have an equal length of drain pipe slip it over the skeleton. This will take some effort, it tends to be difficult to get the drain pipe to go around the sharper curves. The reason for not gluing the pipes together is thus, once the drain pipe is on...it may look like crap and you will want to re-bend/re-cut pieces of the inner skeleton. To help visualize how your finished Gypsy will look like you may find it helpful to attach just the head part (not with the lip) of the car seat to the drain pipe and place it on the skeleton (See section D. Attaching the head). Once you have everything the way you want it, glue the pipe pieces together and put the drain pipe back on (to keep your options open for later changes I suggest drilling holes in the joints and using bolts/nuts to hold the pipes together)..

C. Building the Head -- Now that the two pieces of the seat are separated and the liner has been trimmed these two pieces can be joined. Place the two pieces together so they will be in the position that you want them to be for the finished product (you may need someone else to help with keeping the pieces in the right position). Now that the head is looking how you want it, you have to decide which size of PVC pipe you are going to use as the joint for the lower lip. I am still trying to decide if the 1 inch or 3/4 inch pipe looks better, you will have to decide for yourself. Once the two pieces of the head are in place, cut holes that correspond to the pipe size that you chose. See Diagram 2 to determine the best placement for the PVC joint. Now make sure that the lower lip is able to move, you want the holes in the car seat pieces to be snug against the pipe, but no too snug. Once the lip is in working condition the final aspects of the head can be finished. To make it into a functional Gypsy, you will need to obtain one 5/16 X 5 inch eye bolt, one 5/16 X 3 and 1/4 inch eye bolt, one strong spring (length to be described later), and get nuts and wingnuts to match the size of the eye bolts. Determine the placement of the flashlight on the top of the head by consulting the bot pics on the pictures page. Now drill a hole through the flashlight bottom and the top of the head so that you can screw the longer of the eye bolts through the underside of the top of the head and into the flashlight bottom. Once the eye bolt is screwed through the head and flashlight, use the wingnuts and nuts to secure the flashlight in place (use the nut on the inside of the flashlight and the wingnut on the inside of the head...just for easy adjustment). Now carefully figure out the spot on the inside of the lower lip directly below the eye bolt in the top. In that spot drill a hole and screw in the shorter eye bolt (once again have the wingnut on the inside and the nut on the outside). Now measure the distance between the eye bolts, and find a spring of the same or slightly shorter length. You want a strong enough spring so that when the mouth is pulled open the lip will be pulled back once the string is released. Take care to get a spring that will not get over extended when pulled, but also not to get a spring that is so strong that the mouth can not be opened. Once the right spring is found secure each end of the spring to an eye bolt using strong string or fishing line. See Diagram 5 to see what the finished inside looks like. Use that same string to attach to the bottom of the lip (at the bolt) to use to control the movement of the mouth. To make the string so it is not dangling about, you may want to drill a hole in the drain/inner skeleton and feed the string through.

D. Attaching the head -- To attach the top part of the head to the inner skeleton you will need to drill holes in the corners of the floor drain and also corresponding holes in the back of the head piece. It is important to make many measurements and mark the places on the floor drain and head before any drilling is done. It is very important to have the holes on the drain and head match up, it will save you a lot of aggravation to do the measurements instead of drilling aimlessly. Once you get the holes drilled and they in fact do line up, attach the head piece to the floor drain using bolts, wingnuts, and washers. Screw the bolts in from the back of the floor drain into the back of the head, before the screw enters the head place a washer in-between the two pieces. On the inside of the head place another washer and tighten down the entire thing with a wingnut. Once the floor drain is attached to the head, it can then be secured to the rest of the inner skeleton.

E. Painting and finishing up-- Use Testor’s Colors by Boyd 52901 Purple Pearl for the flashlight and outside of the head. Any flat black will do for the floor drain, inside of the head and any marks that need to be covered up on the drain pipe. Use Testor’s 1277 Fluorescent Yellow for the inside of the lens on the flashlight. Finish out the look by hot gluing a piece of pipe insulation to the upper lip.