The Robots are Coming!

We spend 30 weekends a year traveling to art shows. Sometimes we stay over a week or two due to the distance we go to share our work. An example is that we're leaving for Tempe, Arizona on Monday, November 30th and we won't return home until December 14th. Two full weeks on the road without welding equimpment! What's an artist supposed to do?

I've tried my hand at several other mediums over the years with limited, this usually means none, success. Recently, I've been experimenting with taking recycled items that I've had lying around, (they are things that are not easily welded), and started drilling holes and bolting them together. Here's my first result.



This is Argus 1.

I started with an old Argus box camera for the body and used all thread for the legs. I believe the feet are some kind of a towel bar pieces. The arms were designed using Corel Draw, and I cut them out on our cnc. CNC stands for computer numerical control. It's a fancy name for a machine that will take a drawing and cut out parts based on the drawing. It's a handy thing to have in one's garage!

Argus is the first of seven robots that I've built so far. And that takes us back to my original thought. I have several boxes of items that I'm taking with us on our travels, and now I have something other than Sudoku to keep me busy. Not that I'm dissing on Sudoku. I just like to create with my hands.