Sculptor, kinetic artist, and longtime MAKE pal Alan Rorie is back with this beautiful “pressure door” built for a Nautilus-themed art car commissioned from San Francisco art collective Five Ton Crane.
The door locks and unlocks via RFID, and the huge, four-foot diameter mechanical iris in its center is motorized:
The motorization of the large aperture was surprisingly easy. I used two small DC motors with spur gears and nice torque mounted on either side of the cam ring. I then welded chain around the cam ring turning it into a giant gear. It worked the first time I tried it. I controlled the two motors with an Arduino and a motor shield, two limit switches and a few lines of code. I then modified an old positioner and inserted a set of buttons, so that when you pull the handle of the positioner it trips the buttons and turns the motors.
Rorie, who is a specialist in iris apertures, also built four smaller irising windows for the car’s body. There are many more beautiful pictures in Alan’s Flickr Set. [Thanks, Alan!]
More:
- An iris by any other name?
- How-To: Paper Iris Glasses
- Handmade Irising Wristwatch Cover
- Free Irising Business Card Template
- Printable Iris-Lid Jewelry Box, With Video
- Brass amd Wood “Pressure Door” with Iris, Handwheel
- Motorized Iris Based on Chris Schaie’s Design
- Secret Knock-Detecting Workshop Door
12 thoughts on ““Nautilus” Art Car Pressure Door with Huge Mechanical Iris”
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How heavy is this thing? And how slowly will it move? Judging just from the door, the weight must be enormous…
I would like to thanks for creating this interesting blog, because its having the good entertainment.
I would like to thanks for creating this interesting blog
This project wasn’t commissioned from San Francisco art collective Five Ton Crane, it was commissioned and funded by the folks I work for Chris and Amber Marie Bently:
http://thebolditalic.com/hudin/stories/1214-workin-for-the-man
They also worked on the original idea- it’s been something they both talked about with our design department for years, we did a lot of artwork along the way for this.
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