Over the past few years I’ve seen a few pieces of kinetic art that really stuck with me. Usually these are things that are simulating organic motion with simple mechanical structures. At some point, I decided I wanted to make a piece of kinetic art of my own.
The concept I settled on was a “wave machine”. I’m not the first to come up with this concept, many have approached it with variations on similar mechanics. If you do a google search for “wave machine” you’ll see quite a variety.My idea involved swinging “arms” that would ride on a cam. The cam should be interchangeable, allowing for me to simulate multiple different types of waves.
The initial vision I had for this project was machined out of brass and aluminum. I thought the juxtaposition of the heavy and hard metals with the smooth and flowing forms and motions would be neat. To do this required I learn some cnc machining. I’ve had this Tormach 770 cnc mill for a few months now, and finally felt comfortable enough to tackle this project.
Before I started machining things, I had to make a decision. Would I create custom fixtures to hold everything to get the ultimate quality of parts, or would I cut the amount of time and effort in half and just rip the shapes from the metal in the fastest way I could figure out. As my summer schedule filled with travel all around the globe, I decided to go the route of doing things quickly. If you’re a machinist, you’ll think of many ways I could have achieved better finish, but most of those methods would also require custom workholding and more time than I had to give.
Ideally this project would have been completely plastic free. I enjoy 3d printing, but I also find…
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