Waft waft ye wings.

I'm working on a new model. It is a flying creature - not sure what yet. I wanted to do an update of the mechanism that was used in Die Fledermaus. In the Maus the arms flap up and down four times for each rotation of the handle. I only need two flaps with this model. I also wanted to change the design slightly so that the cam follower can be weighted for a more positive wing movement. The Maus model uses a small coin as a weight but the cam follower can tend to bind if not built accurately. Hopefully this dragged cam follower will work better.
To work out the dimensions of the box I made an axle hole in the centre of a piece of card, dropped the mechanism into place as in the picture, left, then drew out a box to enclose a full rotation. This almost worked - had to be resized slightly. I now have a completed working base mechanism ready to add flying creature.

I'm going to London on Monday giving a small talk at Imperial College. I'm part of the presentation "Improbable Research: Imperial & Otherwise" with Marc Abrahams - originator of the Ig Nobel prize and co-founder of Annals of Improbable Research. Should be fun!

Thanks to all the people who came the Design Technology Show last week. I had a fantastic - if somewhat fraught, time. It was really nice to meet people in the flesh!