It's alive!

April 20, 2009 10:10 AM

Help me make automatons.

I want to start making wind-up toys as a hobby. I'm particularly interested in toys that use springs for power, as opposed to say rubber bands. I assume that a wind-up car will be the logical starting point.

Please point me to any of the following:

1. tutorials on just this sort of thing
2. inexpensive toys in this vein that I can purchase and take apart to see how they work
3. cool examples of antique or current wind-up toys
4. places where I could order the materials I would need to make this happen

posted by Number Used Once to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

Best answer: The Automata / Automaton Blog has lots of cool examples of wind-up (and handcranked and electromechanical) automata.

Cabaret Mechanical Theater's online store sells all kinds of interesting books.

Oriental Trading Company sells cheap wind-up toys by the dozen!
posted by moonmilk at 11:40 AM on April 20, 2009

Best answer: This guide from Dug North on Amazon is a good place to start. The three top "automata-building" books listed there are: Automata and Mechanical Toys and Making Mechanical Toys by Rodney Peppe, and Making Mad Toys & Mechanical Marvels in Wood by Rodney Frost.

Dug North also has a very cool blog on automata that will lead you in all kinds of interesting directions. (On preview, moonmilk beat me to this one!)

Here's Steve Good's tutorial on building automata with a scroll saw, and here's an introductory page on automata-making that seems geared a bit more towards the kiddies, but looks instructive nonetheless.
posted by Hellgirl at 11:46 AM on April 20, 2009

Response by poster: Both answers were perfect. Thank you.
posted by Number Used Once at 10:52 PM on April 25, 2009