Sunday, February 19, 2012

Del's wooden contraption



Delbert “Del” Short is a woodworker who's turned to making fanciful machines made entirely out of wood. The one in the video above he calls A Nutty Device. The magazine Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts wrote an article, Mechanical Marvels in Wood, about his creations. The article also includes two videos of other machines he's built. From that article:
When building one of these contraptions, which can take up to eight months to complete, Del makes the big gear in the middle first. Everything has to work together within the overall framework

“Everything in there has to be removable, because I might need to take them out and put them back in again fifteen or twenty times until I can get it to work properly. I may have to readjust the mechanism or make something completely different,” Del explained.

Many people want to buy his machines, but Del’s not selling. “I make these for my own amusement so I’ve never drawn up plans for them,” Del said. “Each machine is a true one-of-a-kind. To make another one I’d have to start all over again from scratch, and it would turn out completely different because I wouldn’t remember exactly how I did it the first time!”
  

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