Right now my grandkids are really into robots; older ones like the changing kind a lot, all like the retro bots. Recently I saw an amazing collection of very fine Steampunkish sculptures made from leather and all sorts of machine parts, they were beyond cool and something I would love to attempt one day. How to blend these 2 robot ideas? Recycle trash into a robot of course! I wanted to use easy to obtain supplies, circuit boards, watch pieces and washers are pretty easy to find if you don’t have any. (We gutted some old electronics, typewriter, adding machine etc a few years ago and I have been using the bits ever since.)
Breaking this down in stages, construction today, painting and embellishment tomorrow.
Stage 1 basic construction:
Supplies: Variety of plastic caps (We can’t recycle them here.), plastic bottle, plastic coated wire, dried beans for weighing down bottom
Tools: Drill with 1/32″ bit, wire cutters, long nose or round nose pliers
1. Sort and arrange caps to form arms, feet, neck and head.
2. Drill a hole in center of each cap. Drill holes on sides for arms and 2 in bottom to attach feet.
3. Insert wire through arm hole, across body, out to other side. Thread caps on to side wires. Adjust wire then bend wire end at end of arms into a spiral. Length of arms can be adjusted later for right now you want at least 3″ bare wire at top of each arm.
4. Loop wire around the arm wire crossing the inside body for attaching the head. Thread neck and head caps onto wire then spiral wire end on top. Once head is secure you can pull down on arm wires to move it into place. Since I am going to make this robot into a bank I want to be able to open it at the neck.
5. To attach the feet spiral one end of wire, insert one side of feet caps onto wire. Insert wire into body, across and out second foot hole. Thread on remaining feet caps, trim wire and spiral.
6. To stabilize the robot I filled the bottom of the body with beans. Now I can start paint or treat all sides at once. After the robot is complete I can dump out the beans and replace them with coins.
