Bakelite
If you don’t already know, Bakelite is one of the first forms of plastic. Originally used to make radio housings and later lots of other stuff like jewelry. In this case radios and record players are the donor objects that will add up to this robot. I’ve been collecting these things for years but only recently felt that I had enough in my collection to accomplish anything.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The rear wheel is a standard swivel caster mounted into an old record player casing. The front wheels are from a golf bag cart, and I’m pretty sure his hands will be made from clamps from the same style carts. My next step is to mount the arms (of unknown origin) to the torso. Below are some before/after pics of the socket joints that I made for this purpose. Expect further details on the facial features etc. in future posts.
Now, this stuff may be loaded with old-world charm, but it does not give up its original identity easily. It is hard, brittle, and when cut produces thick clouds of noxious rust colored dust that sticks to everything (see above). After some experimentation I settled on a dremel tool with a rotozip bit to cut away access holes for the cool plasma globe that I wanted to mount in our new friends chest.
Part of the challenge is to respect the brittle nature of the old radios and try to reinforce all the points where things are attached. A tilted aluminum stand holds the globe securely in its new place and also provides anchor points to mount the tripod base that will serve as his legs.
