HALLOWEEN HALL

BOB THE ORGANIST

Here is Bob, he is the organist that plays for you as the organ is going. I started out making him first and then built the organ around him. This was my first attempt at animatronics or robotics and took me about 4 months to perfect and running smooth. All of the movements are from servo's that they use in model airplanes and run off of a micro computer controller. I never used any of this stuff before I did this and I thought that I was in way over my head in taking this on. As it turned out it wasn't all that bad if you just take one thing at a time and get it working as smooth as you can before going onto the next part, this saves a lot of back tracking later on! You need a 4th class bucky skeleton to start with and 3 servo motors, I also used category 5 cable that gives you 4 pairs of wires to work with on the servo motors. This gives movement of the head for left, right, his head to go up, down, and the jaw to move when he laughs (yes Bob has vocals too). Again this part of the project was not cheap to do either all told I spent about $250.00 just on this part alone. Well on to the directions.........

First thing you will need to do is construct the bench for your performer. I did mine out of 3/4" scrape plywood and 2 x 2 stock. I made a box out of 3" plywood strips and nailed them together with butt joints. Then I measured the outside dimensions and cut another piece to fit and glued and nailed that to the top edge the box. I then miter cut some pine cove molding to fit over the exposed edge of the top piece of plywood for trim. Then I cut 4 pieces of 2 x 2 for legs and screwed them from the top into the ends to make legs. I also ran 2 screws into the legs through the sides of the bench in each corner. Once that is done and the glue has set up I put Bob on the bench to see where his legs would look the most natural and took another 2 x 2 x 4 inches long piece and placed it against his spine on the inside and drew the bottom profile on the top of the bench, then took him off and drilled a pilot hole through the bench top. Now glue & screw the 2 x 2 to the bench through the hole from bottom up into the 2 x 2. At this point I primed and painted the bench with exterior paint. Now put your Bucky (Bob) back on the bench and mount him to the block by drilling 3 pilot holes through the 2 x 2 and into the spine bones and screw it down to the block. I also put screws through the pelvis bone and into the bench top for more rigidity. If your happy with the position, drill a 3/4 inch hole for the control wires to go through and your done.

While the bench is drying take your bucky and unscrew the hanger on top of the skull. Now lift off the top of the skull and you'll find that there is a nut and a bone washer holding the bottom half of the skull to the bolt. Take this apart also so that when you are done you have a bucky with no head. Take a marker and make a line right above the first bone on the bolt and put a dot in the front on the top and bottom of the that line this keeps the bolt oriented. On the top of spine bones there are two wires that hold all of the pieces together, the ends are rolled and you want to unroll them so you can take off at least 3 of the vertebra. You need to do this as this is where you will make the hinge for the neck to move. Now cut the bolt in half with a hacksaw at the line. It cuts hard because the rod is made from stainless steel! Take the top half of the bolt you cut off and using a bench top vice extend the threaded portion of the bolt at least 1 inch more with a die cutter. Now flip it around and cut off enough of the bolt so the threaded end is flush with the skull eye sockets when the head is on. Now cut the bolt in half for about 1/2 inch length wise and then cut from the side into it to form a notch. Do the same with the bolt section in the torso to form a "Z" (refer to drawing above), this is the hinge for the neck to swing back and forth on. For the hole through the two pieces I first did the upper part and used this to mark where to drill the bottom one, giving myself a small gap at the ends. After I was done cutting I rounded the corners on the two parts with a dremel tool and grinding wheel so you end up with a half moon shape on the ends and smoothed out the cuts I made on the insides of the two pieces. Now just use a machine screw and lock nut with washers (#10-32) and tighten it up so it has no play but swivels easily. Now go back and replace the vertebra bones back onto the wires and turn the ends back with a needle nose pliers back into loops. Now run a lock nut down the threads as far as you can. Make a piece of alum. to go onto the bolt for mounting the servo rod to. Put this on and then run another lock nut down on top of it. On top of this I put a wooden ball that was cut in half and drilled in the center for the skull to ride on. Then put the bottom half of the skull on and then the bone washer that came with bucky and screwed this to the bottom of the skull and a 5/16 inch fender washer on top of that and run another lock nut down to hold the skull in place. Do not tighten all the way down, the skull has to move side to side also. When you are done bucky's head should now move back and forth andside to side smoothly, if it does not adjust the lock nuts until it does. Now you have two ofthe three movements done