Gargoyles with Flapping Wings

Put a little life in your gargoyles with flapping wings.

Internal Mechanism
Mounting
Results
Regrets
Related Pages

Internal Mechanism

The heart of the mechanism is an AC gear-motor. It is mounted on a frame made from aluminum sheeting.

We made two gargs with moving wings, picking some motors out of the spare parts box that looked similar, but were of different speeds.

[photo] The motor is fitted with an eccentric cam and rotates back and forth two loops made from welding-rod.

[photo] This photo shows the loop of welding-rod that conveys the flapping motion to the wings.

Mounting

The aluminum motor frame is screwed into the PVC skeleton for the gargoyle.

Results

With the motor attached to the internal frame, the gargoyle doesn't look much different, so we won't bother with a picture of that. But you might want to see it in action (~1 meg). [movie]

Regrets

I suggest that you look at this page as a proof that it can be done and inspiration for doing it, not as instructions for doing it.

Since our wings were molded into the gargs as folded up, they couldn't move very much. The effect turned out to be too subtle on the one with the slow motor (but if you pointed it out to somebody, they would yell in surprise). The fast one moved part of the body along with the wings, making him look like he was humping the pillar.

But if you started with gargs that had nice, individual, outspread wings - it would be spectacular.

It comes back to the issue of being either subtle or cartoon-like.

Please visit our other gargoyle pages:

Thank you for visiting. Your comments are welcome.
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