The new and improved Moto Magic 2
The Moto Magic 2 is easier to make and runs better than anything before, however it runs in circles!
If you like to race it over a distance then make the moto magic from a tin can, just look it up under CATEGORIES in the side bar and there you will find the older version.
These materials are all easy to get. The plastic tub and lid are recycled from the grocery store, or you ask in the store for an empty one, they sell for about 25 cents, but if you explain why you need it you will get it free, most likely! Any one or two elastics will do, they need to be long enough to span the length of the tub and a little more. You need also a medicine cup, you can get it at any pharmacy, free if you ask nicely. The wooden tooth pick or match stick at the bottom is needed to stop the elastic from turning, the steel washers are used to lower the friction, or drag, so your Moto Magic 2 will run better. The larger stick is a used shish-kebab scewer, or any larger but light stick or rod about 25-30 cm long.
The materials you need.
You need two pieces of slender wood, about 2.5 cm wide and .5 cm thick, you can cut them from a good piece of soft wood, or go to the paint store and ask for two stirrer sticks, they are ready made for this. Ask for one more as a backup, in case …
The hand-held fulcrum is a block of wood about 3 cm thick and having a width the same as the slender levers or paint stirrer sticks.
The clapper disks are cut from a piece of dowel wood, but they can also be square, about 15 millimeter thick or a littel more. Make them from hardwood the sound will be better!
Two number six woodscrews and four 2.5 cm, or about, long finishing nails, and of course some coloured tape for the decoration. All set!
The disk are screwed to the levers, note the little pilot hole in the middle of the disk, also drill a little hole iin the end of the lever otherwise the wood may split. Use some glue also.
The disks are cut from a thick piece of dowel wood, but they can also be square, just use a good piece of hardwood, such as elm, or oak. Try to scounge two pieces from a carpenter shop if you can not saw them from a piece of wood at home.
The clapper is assembled
Note that the two disks are precisely aligned, that is important! It does not matter too much how the ends of the two levers are aligned. So when you assemble the two levers, hold the disks together with one hand and nail the leave down on the block, use a little glue in between the pieces.
The clapper is ready to use in a percussion group
The clapper can be used alone or in a percussion group or just to accompany a harmonica, acordion, or any other instrument that can use some rythm as back up.
Try gently hitting the clapper on your thigh, and when you get the rythm, hold your other hand above it so the clapper hits also your hand, that doubles the beat.
Have fun!
Your own wind speed meter is a specialised wind mill with a twist!
The wind speed meter runs with the wind, faster when the wind blows harder. By counting the number of turns you can tell how the wind speed changes. It does not matter where the wind blows from, because the rotor is horizontal and the cups will cause it to turn when the wind blows from any direction.
The materials you need
All you need is a square piece of plywood any reasonable size, and a post that you can make from a broomstick, a piece of dowel wood, or any square piece of wood, we took a 2×2 centimeter piece of pine, about 5 inches or 12 centimeter long. Drill a hole in both ends to receive the nail, one to nail the post to the base and the other to act as the shaft for the rotor.
The medicine cups you can get at any drugstore, just ask for a few, three is enough, but you may want some spares. We melted a hole in the bottom for the screw instead of drilling a hole. I used a piece of steel wire from a coathanger and heated the end up with a gas flame, but a candle will work also, when the end is hot stick it through the bottom, don’t make the hole too large! You need some supervision by an adult with this!
The coloured sticks are from a craftstore, you can also use medical tongue depressors, they are the same size but not coloured. You should be able to get these parts easily. Drill a small hole in each stick for the screw that holds the cup onto the stick.
The hub is cut from a sun umbrella post, you can use any round or even square piece of wood, in this case cut or sand off the four corners to make it look better. You need to cut a slit in the hub at three locations divided around the circumference of the hub. Just use a small hand saw to make the cuts. You may need some help dividing the circumference by three, but most highschool students can help you, by dividing a circle by its radiius you get six divisions, pick every other division and you have the three you need. They should be 120 degrees apart. Nice geometry lesson …
One of the rotor cup and arm
Note the craft stick has been reinforced by a piece of electric tape, make sure you pull the tape hard around the stick, when you drill the small hole for the screw it does not split because of the plastic tape holds the wood together. The plastic medicine cup has been screwed with a number six self tapping round headed screw that you can buy at any hardware store. The screw is only one quarter inch, or about six millimeters long.
The three cups screwed to the wood sticks put them in the slits on the hub and you have the rotor ready to go.
Note that we pulled some coloured tape around the rim of the medicine cups, that will make them stronger and it looks pretty!
The rotor and the assembled base, the two parts are ready to assemble and then PRESTO you are done!
Note that the post on the base has a hole in the top, put a nail through the rotor hub and put two small steel washers between the post and the hub, this will lessen the friction and makes the rotor turn more easily in the wind.
The wind speed meter assembled, put it outside and measure the winds speed!
The harder the wind blows, the faster the rotor will spin. That way you can tell how the wind changes.
Show it to our teacher and friends and try other projects from this blog.
Oops, add a little light machine oil used for the sewing machine for example, to the centre of the hub and to the nail and washers, it will spin faster. Also leave space between the nail head and the hub, right?
A colourful toy hammer that really works!
Hammer head and handle, in the following photos we will see how we can make these.
The handle is a piece of soft wood, such as pine, a piece of dowel would be easier. If you choose this than get some half inch dowel from the hardware store. But a piece of softwood, about 2 by 2 centimeter square and about 30cm long is fine. You have to shape the end that fits in the head.
The head is a piece of oak or any hardwood is fine, it is about 4 centimeter square and about 6 cm high. You can choose any size that feels comfortable. You need to drill a hafl inch hole or about 12 millimeter. If you don’t have the tools, ask an adult friend or drop in at your nearest cabinet maker’s shop or cerpenter’s shop, they will help you, IF you ask in a friendly manner and explain what you need it for!
The finished toy hammer. we made this as part of the toolbox.
This toy hammer really works with small nails and other children’s work. The child should be mature enough to handle this and adult guidance is recommended. At the Boys and Girls Club we made this as part of the toolbox. The toolbox project can be found in the sidebar, just click the name and you will see how it is assembled.
The magic pole horse
The 5 millimeter hole in the middle of the wooden body is larger than the 3.5 millimeter steel wire of the pole, and that makes it “hang-up” by FRICTION on the pole. Just slide it to the top and it will stay there. Now move the head a little up, it will bend the spring, let go and the “robot” slithers and slides in small steps down the pole, the ribbons swaying, the head bobbing. The robot itself is like a lever with a spring and the friction makes it go in steps, one little step down, stop, then down again.
HAVE FUN AND IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS. IT IS COOL!
The materials you need.
The materials you need are mostly around the house, some plywood for the base, or you can also use particle board from an old kitchen cabinet we scrounged on the recycling yard. Coloured electrical tape, and some ribbon for decoration. A piece of dowel wood 4 cm long and about 1.5 cm in diameter, a cork and a spring that we made from curtain spring rod you can find in any fabric store or curtain shop. I piece of steel wire, quite heavy wire from a farm supply store or good hardware store, but you can also use the wire of a steel coat hanger, just clip the longest piece of the hanger and presto…
The wire we used is 3.5 millimeter thick. Make sure to bend one end so it has a blunt end for safety. For added safety and colour wind some tape around the one blunted end.
The base for the Pole Robot is assembled.
We have put some colourful tape around the edges to make it look pretty. Note that the small block of wood or fibre board is glued onto the larger base and nailed down with two finishing nails that are a little shorter than the combined thickness of the two pieces of wood, so the nails don’t stick out the bottom!
Drill a hole in the smaller block almost to the other side, but not quite! The hole should have a diameter equal to the thickness of the steel wire for the pole.
The spring is the core of the Pole Robot, without it there is no robot action.
Note that the SPRING is made of curtain spring which you can buy at any fabric store or curtain shop. The white plastic is cut off the steel core and you cut off a 6 cm length for your spring with plyers. Then you stretch it a little, you may need the help of a stronger friend, or an adult. You can use two plyers, one at each end to pull the spring a little longer, that makes it more FLEXIBLE!
The body, head and spring, all dressed up with some ribbon!
The spring is put into the wooden dowel in the hole you drilled before, put a little carpenter’s glue in to hold it, of just nick the end of the spring with a plier and then push it in the hole, it will stick. The other end of the spring goes into the cork head. The ribbons are glued into the wooden body and in the cork head.
The Pole Robot assembled, have fun!
To activate the Pole Robot, slide the body to the top and there it will stick by FRICTION between the pole and the wooden body. Now lift its head a little, let go and … Show your friends, you will be a magician in their eyes. The secret of the movement is that the spring and the head and the body all work together to stop and let slide the robot down the steel pole in small steps. If you push the head a little more towards the body so that the spring becomes shorter it will make more frequent motions. Try it!
Ready to Go! It will run in circles and you can skip over it or have fun any other way!
Show your Moto Magic 2 to your teacher or help your friends make one, then you can race them. The girls and boys at the Kingston Boys and Girls Club, had all ten of the machines going at once and they jumped up every time one came by. You can also hold the drive stick in your hand and let the container twirl, it will go fast. The ENERGY in the wound elestic spins it around like a gyroscope. Have fun…
Here are the main dimensions of the wood parts an the elastics, compare them with the 30 cm ruler. We combined two havy duty elastics, about 5 mm wide and linked them together to get the right length, about 3/4 or the length of the can.
At the drive side the elastic is stuck through the small hole at the centre. The steel nut serves as a washer. Slip the long stick through the loop of the elastic, then pull the elastic from the other end and loop it around the bottom block.
The driver is an elastic that is fixed at the bottom and the top of the can, look at the photos how this is done. Make sure that the stick only rubs on the washer, IT SHOULD RUN FREE OFF THE RIM , otherwise your have too much friction. Put a little vaseline between the washer and the tin can to lubricate the parts and reduce friction, the Moto Magic will run much longer and goes faster with the least friction!
Bottom block holds elastic in place. Note the bottom block should not stich much out beyond the edges of the can. It would give a bumpy ride!
Moto Magic is ready to go...! But you must energize it first by turning the stick many many times in one direction untill the stick starts to turn around on itself when you let it go, that shows that the elastic has enough energy to motor the tin can. Put in on a smooth hard floor and it will run... You will discover other fun things to do with this. Remember, you put energy in and Moto Magic uses it to do some most amazing things!
The rattle, show it off at school and impress your friends and relatives. They will like it... and you made it!
What you need: a paint stirrer, an little longer piece of pine wood, same or a little larger width than the paint stirrer, a piece of dowel wood 3/8 inch diameter, a square block, about 45 millimeter square and 20 mm thick, a piece of wood, 2o millimeter square and about 8 centimeter long, some electrical tape for decoration, and some wide craft popsicle sticks from the dollar store of hobby store. Try to get a good sturdy quality. You might also get a tongue depressor at the pharmacy or doctor's office, show them what you want to make and they will help you out!
