Wearing the Wings

Finally got around to finishing the leather harness for my wings, which now means I can wear them and run around scaring the neighbors.
Heres a video of them in action:

Photos of Final[ish] Wings

Well the wings are finally done.. well, I mean done in the sense of now they go to the costumer to get the rest of the harness and costume figured out. But the main woodwork is done so I can revel in my small victory.
As for the damage count, the final piece ended being made of 206 separate pieces of wood: 32 parts in the centre chassis, 72 parts in each wing, 30 pivot pins [which further have 60 toothpick pieces as retainer pins that I am not counting]. All these components required over 800 feet of waxed sailmakers twine that was hand lashed to every part.
Since my last update I have added in a centre spine piece that will serve to keep the wings from pinching the wearers back [I think I still have the bruises from before], as well as an attachment points for the harness straps [made somewhat more difficult by my lack of knowledge of what the costume/harness are going to look like].
As is my habit, before anything leaves my shop I make sure to take a bunch of photos, but nice ones this time instead of the usual cheap and cheerful. To get better results I clear out the garage, and hang a seamless paper backdrop from my ceiling, or more accurately its jury rigged off of the hooks holding up my kayak and ladder. Lighting is just a single wireless flash strobe with a round defuser, sitting on top of whatever happens to be the right height. Oh and that high tech device holding the end of the background in place.. yup its a rock.

Wings Video

Kinetic sculpture always makes more sense when, you know, its in motion. So heres a quick stop motion video showing the movement of the wings. To give you an idea of size its about 9.5' [2.9m] wide when open, and about 2' [0.6m] wide when closed.

To open the wings. the slider [the part in the middle that sits on the centre shaft] moves upwards causing the linkage to spread. The movement is carried outwards by a series of levers. Only the outside feather is rigidly connected to the mechanism, the others are attached with lengths of cord to it and are pulled out when the cord goes taught.

Finishing and Fire

I just put on a couple coats of linseed oil/beeswax finish on my pieces, gives them a nice warmth and protects the surface. After its applied the pieces got hung up to dry, which did give me an opportunity to see just how many pieces go into this thing (incidentally 35 separate assemblies, made up of a whole shwack of smaller parts).
The only downside to this process, linseed oil can spontaneously combust, which would probably be far too entertaining in a shop filled with tubs upon tubs of dry wood shavings and stacks of dry lumber. The solution, why a prescribed burn of course. It is rather scary the amount and duration of flame you get off some oily paper towels.

Chassis

I just finished construction on the chassis for the wings, its all made out of steam bent and carved yellow cedar. I have attached some photos that showing the layout, sawing and carving of the parts.

Steam Bending

I decided that the chassis of my wings needed some curved components. I considered making these with some home made glulam components, but ultimately chose to steam bend the parts.
Having never done this before, I started by knocking together a crude steam box out of some scrap pine. This box is enhanced with a plug on one end, a candy thermometer, a hinged door with a magnetic clasp n the other, and a series of copper wires inside to keep the pieces off the floor of the box. There is a copper pipe sticking out the bottom which is hooked up to an old kettle sitting on a hotplate. I find I can get about 2.5 hours of steam out of the kettle so it works well for me.
I made this setup originally thinking that it was just going to be temporary because I was unsure as to the odds of success, but as it turns out it works just fine, although the box has corkscrewed itself about 2 inches of twist, I think next time I am going to be looking for exterior plywood.
The first step in the process is to first soak the parts for 24 hours in a tub of water, I tried to omit this step and found the the results were mixed to put it mildly.
The steam box is preheated before the parts go in, from looking at the gauge it seems to top out at 95°C which I suppose is partly due to the altitude here. Once it is up to tempature I toss the parst in and steam them for 15-20 minutes depending on thickness.
Once steamed the parts are bent by hand for greater control of the bending, however I find that I burst way too many capillaries in my thumbs doing this. Then they are placed on a peg board so they don't spring back as they cool.

Test Fitting

I had an itching to see what the wings looked like on a person so I jury rigged a quick harness out of rope and walked over to the park. I had Janet take some photos of me looking all triumphant.

Feathers Attached

Finally got the feathers assembled to the wings. Turns out my original design spec of 8' wing span was slightly conservative, they have now enlarged to have a wingspan of 9'4". This of course makes them rather fun to maneuver whilst open.

The Making of the Feathers Part 2

Once I had all the yellow cedar terminals carved for the feather pieces I then had to plane and cut the red cedar spars. Everything was then tied together to form the final feathers.

The Making of the Feathers Part 1

Having got the main segments complete I now had to construct the feathers, this was somewhat complicated by the fact that there were 12 of these, and that each had to be constructed of at least 5 pieces (7 for the two end feathers) so 64 pieces in total. As for why I did it this way, well anything less just didn't feel right. To give you a sample of my workflow Here are the steps that go into making feathers.

Step 1: I started with a big block of yellow cedar and drilled through the entire thing twice.
Step 2: The block was rough shaped with chisels to establish the general curve of all the pieces.
Step 3: The block was split in half lengthwise using a knife. The fun thing about wood grain is that when you learn where the cleavage planes are it splits very easily and predictably, thus allowing you to save hours of sawing.
Step 4: So predictably in fact that splitting 14 separate pieces out of the block goes very very fast.
Step 5: The parts are then carved with a knife into their final shape.

Main Segments Complete

I finally got the main wing structure put together. This of course means that I only have all 12 feathers, the feather control rods, the chassis, the backpack assembly, the main control rods, and the main slider left to build. Hey almost there.

Carving and Tying

Work on the wings is proceeding, albeit slowly, its the fun of balancing a day job and an art practice. These are a couple of shots showing the tying together of a centre spreader, and the carving of an end joint.

Layout

The one downside I am realizing now, is that by constructing everything multi-part, I am going to end up with a lot of pieces.
This is an image of my current layout, most of the yellow cedar inside bits have been cut and carved, and I made a very large stack of red cedar spars. I am using coroplast and pins as a general layout aid, accuracy is important because the levers will magnify any error 10 fold.

Construction of First Segment

To improve the look of the wings I have decided to add some complications to the design. The most major of these is going to be turning every spar on my test model into a rather complex multi-part segment. These will be constructed of red cedar spars, and yellow cedar spreaders. The red cedar I was fortunate enough to source from a local boat builder named Don Gardner, who had it left over after building a 26' birch bark canoe for the Glenbow Museum. The spars are made by hammering a knife into the end of the thicker wood and splitting down till I get the size I need. This ensures that the grain runs straight and helps reduce breakage. Once cut, the spars and the spreaders are assembled by hand using sailmakers twine.

First Concept Model of Wings

I have been commissioned to build a set of wings for a theatrical performance. The plan currently is to build them out of wood and make them so that they can be strapped to the performers back. I am going to shoot for something in the size range of a 2' wide system when closed, opening up to ~8' when open.

The photos that are attached are of a half scale mechanical test model that was constructed in an evening. The materials are wood dowels and toothpicks for the hinges. The system that I have chosen for these wings is a simple chain of levers to activate all the component parts.

The goal of this project is to construct a rather complex set of mechanical wings almost entirely out of hand carved western cedar.