The Man’s Heart: New Kinetic Project – Part One

I was commissioned this year by the Burning Man project to create a very special project: a beating, kinetic, heart for none other than The Man. Being on the build team for Mr. Splinters (El Hombre del Fuego, Dude Man, The Great False Idol) I was honored and wanted to create something very, very special. I’ll be chronicling the build of the heart over the next few days.

After much debate, I settled on a design from KMODDL, a wonderful, smooth, cam-and-follower mecanism that reminded me of the beating heart of some giant.  Since KMODDL provides CAD drawings, I could easily take some of the parts into Adobe Illustrator to elaborate on and, you know, make purdy. If you can figure out which model I used, you get a prize.

Above is the first part I made- the cam.With the help from a friend with a schmancy super-secret shop, the part was cut of 1/2 inch steel plate (side note: scrounging around in the scrap section of Alco Metals is about as much fun as a gearhead like me can have. I got filthy!) using that most excelent of machines: an Omax water jet  cutter. It came out..dare i say it? Pretty dang sweet. I made two, because, well, why make one when you can make two at twice the price?

Tomorow: The cam follower, electronics,  troubleshooting