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Construction Notes |
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The
Eye & Eye Stalk |
| My first
attempt at an eye was to turn the eyeball in
hardwood and hollow out the inside, however,
this was far too heavy (might have known), so
another method had to be found |
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In the end,
the eye was made up from a variety of materials
- the rear curve was formed using a 100mm
acrylic hemisphere, the collar from 110mm
plastic drainage pipe and the front cowl
mounting the lens and filters was cut from the
original wood turning, sanded to fit snugly into
the collar. The stepped cowl rings were from 3mm
MDF sheet. |
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1 1/4"
plastic wast pipe was used to form the rear
eyeball collar and this was glued over the inner
core tube and to the rear of the acrylic dome.
the detail on the outer ring was produced from
4mm 'D' shaped plastic strip similar to those
used to create the indented lines on the dome. |
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| Four
different types of light were tried but all were
unsuccessful to some degree, so I finally went
for a Land Rover sidelight unit, mounted in the
inner core ring and sleeved by the rear eye
unit. A layer of silver foil as a reflector and
the eye is lit by a 12 volt 10 watt bulb. |
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| The eye
stalk is sleeved in 25mm alloy tube, cut to the
required lengths to provide spacers for the eye
discs, and these are loosely fitted over a 3/42
copper tube core, being held in place by the
pivot block and bolt. |
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Originally the eye discs were to have been from
translucent acrylic sheet, but forming the curve
proved to be too difficult - I had neither the
necessary heating facilities nor the patience to
try and try and try, so in the end they were
made up using white fibreglass gelcoat and
coarse mat, laid in a turned MDF former. |
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| The
pivot block was made from 2 pieces 3/4" CDX ply
glued together and drilled through to
accommodate the eye stalk core tube. |
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| The
small silver strips were from 0.5mm plasticard
but kept falling off, so were removed - the
resulting marks left by the adhesive are still
visible and this still gives near enough the
desired effect. |
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| The eye
'lens' is made up of clear acrylic sheet and
blue theatrical gels, held in place by a plastic
split ring made from 3" fallpipe. The outer ring
holding the lens in place is from a hardwood
turning. |
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| As
built, raising and lowering the eye is done with
the aid of a smart piece of technical apparatus
called 'string'. |
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| The eye
and eye stalk are rather front-heavy, so in
order to make operating the eye as easy as
possible, a counterweight made from 20mm high
tensile re-bar was introduced. |
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| The
pull-cord is fed through a 'handle' into the
neck bin allowing the operator to raise the eye
at the same time as turning the dome. |
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| The
'handle' is made from 1/2" copper pipe and
angles, soldered together and set so the handle
is as far away from the operators head as
possible. |
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Go to Part 4
- Neck |
