Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
When you pull back on the wire which is attached to the tip, it pulls on the tip until the joint runs out of mechanical play (hits a premade mechanical stop.) Then the next joint flexes until the same thing happens. You don't get the exact motion of a true muscle structure since you are only really using one "muscle" but the approximation is pretty good.
|
The "hits a premade mechanical stop" part is the reason why my roller chain experiment failed. This is the key factor that I was missing. Thanks for the tip!
Now that we have lots of good ideas of how to make this work, how do we make it look good? Yes it is for a parade float and millions of people will be watching, including judges. Typically, the float is covered in mesh screen and sprayed with expanding foam and the flowers are either stuck into that or glued onto that. One slip joint might be okay (where the moving part fits inside the stationary part so you don't see the "guts" when it pivots) but I certainly don't think it would look good to have these slip joints 6 or 8 times (or more) down the length of the tail.
So, I was thinking to have some sort of flexible skin or fabric. The problem is, the tail is supposed to look smooth, not wrinkled and not scrunched up like a CV boot (or an accordian).
So, how do you make this look good, be able to move, and have the flowers remain intact? The looking good part is just as important as the motion. And if it cannot be made to look good, it will not be built this way.
Some other people working on this tail want it to only swing side to side at one pivot point. I'm trying to convince them that we can do better than that. But I really need to tackle the problem of decoration to convince them, because without a good way to decorate it, it can't be used.