Thread: Turning gears.

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So I am building my stalk-around costume for this year and looking for a way to install some turning gears on it. It would be great if they could be battery powered, but my guess is that THAT wont work, or at least it will be more hassle and money than I have left in the budget. I thought about just making some I can turn by hand, but obviously I'd like to be able to have them turn while I am doing other stuff also. He is a bio-mechanical Frankenstein, much like GG's Freakenstein, but with my own twist on it - including a glowing fuel rod that bubbles, and, obviously, some rotating gears.

Anyway, I'm looking for a way that I could kind of crank the gears up by hand and then allow them to slowly unwind on their own. I thought about something like an old baby-swing type mechanism. I actually think the cranking sound would just add to the costume, but then I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone had any brilliant ideas. I'm thinking they will be three or so 6-8" (and smaller) foam gears. I could attach them to PVC, or whatever. I just can't think of a way to force them to unwind slowly, if, for example, I used an elastic to power the unwinding.

Any brilliant ideas?

I think a mechanical winding is going to be just as much a hassle as other methods. You can get some motors cheap online, here is a link to one that is small and draws little current and is cheap. http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a...R-12VDC/1.html its only $9.00 but you have to pay shipping and you will need 8 batteries to hit the 12v or use less and it will run slower, you will have to open this one up to solder wires in. If you are only running 8" foam gears just for looks the 15ma no load rating should let you run it for a while on a set of batteries.

This is just one example. I cant proclaim this will work for you. You will have to decide.