The power source for this machine is a 1950s wind-up Brownie movie camera, which is buried deep within the bowels of the wooden chamber. (It was a good choice because those old movie cameras have quite a powerful spring, plus a speed control mechanism that keeps the spring from unwinding too fast.)

The movie camera's winding arm was modified so that it could be connected to a pulley and belt arrangement that runs from inside the chamber to a horizontal shaft mounted on top of the chamber. All movement is taken off of this single shaft.

A specially designed clutch-and-trigger mechanism was installed to enable the camera to be disengaged while being wound up, and then reengaged when the start knob on the left is pulled. When the machine is set in motion, several things happen simultaneously:

1) A spoked wheel rotates
2) A pendulum-like object swings back and forth
3) A cam-activated arm causes a spiral clock spring to bounce around
4) Two crescent-shaped objects dance around, while making a loud clickety-clack noise

While the machine runs for less than a minute, it creates a good deal of rather zany-looking commotion when it's running!

The spoked wheel is made of brass balls attached to brass rods. The other metal components are also mostly brass.

While the central shaft support columns are mahogany, most of the other wood components are cherry. The clickety-clack object is made of boxwood. The box-like base is actually part of an old bureau which is made of hardwood veneer.

Approximate Dimensions: 16" long x 10" deep x 17.5" high.

Out of my family of machines, this is definitely the crazy, rambunctious child. As this was just my second machine, there is less emphasis on woodworking and more on whimsy. It was certainly fun, both in its design and execution.

The general idea was to have a number of whimsical movements take place on top of a box, driven by something hidden and zany...such as an old, wind-up movie camera. When you get right down to it, this is a silly-looking machine, as was intended from the start. It also sounds somewhat goofy. People tend to smile when I run it.

Though not shown in the photos, the internals of the machine are rather interesting from a mechanical standpoint. Indeed, I had to do many things to adapt the movie camera to serve as the central motor. This took a bit of doing before I could get it to work exactly the way I wanted.

(I just happen to have in my cellar stash of mechanical goodies a few other wind-up movie cameras just waiting for a second life in powering some future machine of mine.)