Building the Puppet - Connections and Limbs Experimentation

Connecting Parts

To connect the different body parts I need to use joint plates, head ball screws and bolts and nuts. I built the plates myself, and I have ordered bolt and nuts online as well as the head ball screws. However, the number of ball head screws that I ordered was not enough, and that was the last package I could find to be deliver on time. I found a semi replacement, ball heads with holes and no bars in them. They are not the perfect choice, but that is the closest thing I could find. Therefore, I had to include the bars myself in them.

Connection items

Testing how the joint plates would work seems to be promising as I managed to get the bolts locked in properly as planned. The plate holes seem to be in the right size and position.

Joint plates with a bolt and  a nut

For the full ball head screws, they seem to be in perfect size as well. I was a able to fit them in the wooden parts via drilling holes in the wooden parts first.

Wooden parts with ball head screws.

In the case of the balls with holes, I managed, with a help from a technician, to weld a wire inside these balls. The wire fit right in the balls, and then they shaped almost a full ball head screw.  I then drilled the wooden part and inserted the screw, and later I glued it with super glue and spray glue. The results appeared to be optimistic.

Tools needed to insert the created ball head screw.

I started connecting the wooden parts together using the plates to test their endurability. Nevertheless, the welding in in the balls was too weak to support the movement of the wooden parts, so the bar came off. I re-welded them, and this time with a little bit thicker bar to make sure it fits in with no friction. I tested them again, but the same problem happened. The bar came off.

Re-welded screws

Testing create screws

I realised that this would be very time consuming and painstaking process, thus I determined to hold it off, and ordered another package of ball head screws which will arrive within two weeks.

Making hands and feet

Because I need the hands and feet to be movable, I spend fairly some time to come up with a good design and materials. I had a few experimentations. First I started with shaping the clay as how I wanted it, then inserted wire to hold it. However, the wire kept slipping and didn't hold the clay.

Then, I used a piece of foil, wrapped it with clay, and then inserted the wire. The final result was still too weak to hold the limb all together.

Finally, I did the first experiment, but this time it is wrapped with duck tape to hold it together. It sort of worked for the hands. For the feet, I had to put a piece of wood inside of the clay to hold it stronger.

Hands making process

Feet making process

I will later one test how these will work with spray paints.