Wednesday 20 March 2013

magnetic eyes

i have now received the steel ball bearings so i could get underway with the eyes and stop them from falling out when i remove the lower half of the face.



 the ring magnets, they came in a pack of ten.

first of all i made a mould of the two new bearings, each with a small stick glued to them, this will make the pour hole. this mould will ensure i have an exact replica of the bearings when it comes to moulding them.


after cutting a bearing in half i placed one half in the bottom of the mould and poured liquid plastic into the hole that the stick made. this is what came out, half a bearing capped with plastic.

i remoulded the silicone eye socket and cast it in plastic, this allowed me to drill out a section just big enough to push the ring magnets into.


the eyes sit nicely on top of the magnets.  




i just need to drill into the plastic bit and paint a iris/pupil and the eyes will be done.





3 comments:

  1. Hi Mark, How is the project going now?
    I really like these eye sockets... and am thinking to do something similar for my bird armature... What ball bearings did you use, and how did you cut them in half? Sounds tough to me, to cut ball bearings in half, but maybe this was a softer kind?
    (my bird is coming along well btw, I can share some pictures/link to blog if you want, but don't want to spam on your blog. ;) )

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    Replies
    1. hey Roos!
      the projects going a bit slow at the moment, lots going on at work. i am though, working on the girl puppet now, finished sculpting her body and i am now working on her head and replacement face parts.
      i just bought regular steel bearings and cut them with a small hacksaw, yes it was a lot of hard work and took a while but i managed to do it a bit quicker second time round with a small dremel tool.
      i saw the pic of your bird armature actually, it looks awesome! i will agree with stopmo nick and say it looks amazing all mechanical.

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