As with most of my pieces, it begins first with collecting crap, then haphazardly arranging it on the floor or a table (above right) until I can find the confidence to actually start changing the parts to suit my purposes.  The biggest chore in this piece so far has been the removal of a thick layer of white house paint from the old radio.

The next step was to work out a mechanism to make the arms move.  I used the motor from a back massager because it had two output shafts, one for each arm.

Once I was satisfied that this mechanism would work I had to resist the temptation to focus on aesthetic issues and instead make sure that the thing could stand up on its own first.  This meant making hardware to serve as “hips” and “ankles” to support the body.

That out of the way, I was free to pursue the more entertaining issues of appearance.  Much of the wood had to be re finished.  An old Vacuum Tube tester meter and a collection of tubes will serve as the “internal organs” of the piece.  The meter is pretty great because it implies a change of mood or intent in the robot.  I’ve wired it up to flick back and forth between the two “modes”.

Some light effects have been worked in to the head:

I’m pretty pleased with the exterior of the head and torso now, a lining of old wall paper on the interior is a nice intimate touch to the interior which I may still finesse with more light etc.  The main remaining hurdle will be the arms and hands.  While I have chair arms worked out already, I intend to make some hands with long fingers on springs.  It is my hope that I can come up with something that wiggles in sympathy with the motion created by the motor.