For my kinetic sculpture, I wanted to create a convenient ‘self-opening’ box that used a very extreme and innovative mechanism for the opening part of things.
Making the first main box
I wanted a rustic chestbox sort of look for my main box so I used fine notches and glue to make it look a bit more like old wood.
For the hinge mechanism, I glued on these two little pieces and drove a stick through them.
I used heat shrink to prevent the stick from moving around.
The top box and propeller mechanism
Now it was time to make the top part that held the motor and propeller and did the actual ‘opening’ part of things. I made the propeller by sawing a brass tube and hot glueing it to a plastic propeller.
I then connected it to a DC motor with plastic tubing that I melted with a heat gun and hot glue. The plastic tubing made the connection
I then soldered the wires of the motor with a longer set of wires which I’ll connect to a battery.
I poked holes in the botton of the smalled box so that I could pass the wires down to the big box.
And heres the final product with the switch and battery I used to make the propeller go spin! I connected two 9v batteries in series to give it extra umph.
#Thar she spins
Note: the box isnt opening because the box is currently powered only by one battery because the other battery was KIA. As soon as I replace the other 9v, the power would be enough to take the top off.