I spent better than an hour wandering the isles of one of my favourite stores yesterday. I was looking for an electric motor, a gear reducer, jack shafts, bearings and sprockets along with whatever else caught my eye. The purpose was to make next year's Sign Invitational 'MARVELOUS MACHINE' move convincingly. Since we don't normally do this kind of thing I was pretty much making it up as I went - which is always the most fun way to do things.

I brought the many pieces home and then set to work. I measured things up and then designed a myriad of steel brackets and other bots and pieces. By the end of my time in the shop the motor was mounted along with the gear reducer. The vertical cylinder was also mounted to the top of the steam dome and I had built a working camshaft for the piston. By the next session it is my hope to give it all a test drive.

It is of course still all very plain looking for there is still much yet to be added. Think it it as the first layer of a cake, without any fancy icing. There's lots of eye candy to come. This is a whole lot of fun!