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Species Raccoon
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Wow, I've been quiet about my puppet project for a while, mainly because I suffered a major setback.
My main eye assembly worked fine by hand, but had a bit too much flex once I added the springs and cables, leaving me to wonder about its durability. As I may have mentioned before, virtually no glue will stick to polypropylene plastic, so you have to heat weld parts together. I attempted to reinforce the backplate and add fins to help mount it to the head, but the heat from my soldering gun warped the plastic. The eyes don't operate smoothly anymore. Arg. Looking back, it was a pretty stupid design, so... on to eyes version 2.0.
The new eye assembly is an entirely new and fully engineered design, made of acrylic, which will be very durable and glues will stick to it.
My main eye assembly worked fine by hand, but had a bit too much flex once I added the springs and cables, leaving me to wonder about its durability. As I may have mentioned before, virtually no glue will stick to polypropylene plastic, so you have to heat weld parts together. I attempted to reinforce the backplate and add fins to help mount it to the head, but the heat from my soldering gun warped the plastic. The eyes don't operate smoothly anymore. Arg. Looking back, it was a pretty stupid design, so... on to eyes version 2.0.
The new eye assembly is an entirely new and fully engineered design, made of acrylic, which will be very durable and glues will stick to it.
Category Sculpting / Tutorials
Species Raccoon
Size 600 x 750px
File Size 110.1 kB
I tried all kinds of stuff. 2-part epoxy is only okay for bonding low-energy plastic, but it's terrific for mechanical attachment (which I use to bond the shutters to the wooden posts). E6000 seems to work best for bonding plastic, but only offers shear strength, not tensile. Super glue, Liquid Nails, and dedicated "plastic" glues suck.
Now that my new design uses acrylic instead of polypropylene, I use contact cement, which is amazing. It's durable, but it will still come apart if you need it to. This new eye assembly is solid as a rock, so only the strings should need regular maintenance.
Now that my new design uses acrylic instead of polypropylene, I use contact cement, which is amazing. It's durable, but it will still come apart if you need it to. This new eye assembly is solid as a rock, so only the strings should need regular maintenance.
It looks complex, but mostly it just requires accuracy. The shutters required such tight tolerances, whittling the plastic made me feel like a watchmaker. 8)
Actually, I was really hoping I could forgo all this nonsense and use an Arduino microcomputer with a couple 2.2" LCD screens. Alas, all the LCD screens in that form factor are the cheap kind that shift color when you look at them from different angles. Maybe in a few years, OLED screens will be available in larger sizes, and I can build a new puppet with fully electronic eyes (assuming my attempt at puppetry actually works out).
Actually, I was really hoping I could forgo all this nonsense and use an Arduino microcomputer with a couple 2.2" LCD screens. Alas, all the LCD screens in that form factor are the cheap kind that shift color when you look at them from different angles. Maybe in a few years, OLED screens will be available in larger sizes, and I can build a new puppet with fully electronic eyes (assuming my attempt at puppetry actually works out).
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