Thats all for now.  As soon as I finish up a few more pieces it will be off to the photographer and I will return with significantly higher quality images and video for inclusion in the portfolio section.

In order to achieve this I had to remove the little encoder thingy from the assembly and mount a tiny motor in its place, then couple the motor to one of the shafts in the machine.  Above left is the original component, above right shows the parts that had to be machined, and below is the final assembly.

As usual the biggest technical triumph in this piece will go almost entirely unnoticed by the viewing public.  The instrument panel on the critters chest was once part of a Naval communications radio (I think).  The gadget had a knob which adjusted the signal and turned a counter.  There were also two indicator lights mounted in the face plate.  I decided that I wanted the knob to turn by itself and the counter as well, and change out one of the bulbs for the button that would start the sculpture.

I can’t believe that I made it this far without mentioning that his hands are real dried chicken feet!

First a quick look under the hood.  One of the nice things about building a piece based on an equipment case is that it is easy to get access to the guts for adjustments.  The main motor is a back massager.  I removed the  plastic nubs that would have soothed my aching back and replaced them offset wheels to provide the shoulder rotation.

The head was once a juicer.  It had to be mounted behind an old oscilloscope screen and surrounded with LEDs so that it could be seen emerging from the darkness of the box.  My usual favorite trick of using the lens from an overhead projector distorts and magnifies the face just enough to make it seem slightly unreal.