Lots of updates!

Well it's been a while, but not for a lack of effort!

Mr. Fox!

Update #1 - Mr Fox is done! My workmate Aki is now the proud owner of this little beasty. You turn the crank on the side, and Mr. Fox lowers his newspaper. Once he's done that his eyebrows wiggle a little bit, and then he raises the newspaper once again. Very simple movement, but like all automata, a virtual Rube Goldberg design of parts. At least it feels like that sometimes..

Which brings me to...

There will be a Fishmonger on here eventually!

Update #2 - My 'Fishmonger' karakuri is advancing nicely.
Here's the latest image. The amount of parts to achive a simple racheted motion has got a little silly. However if they all work together, well why not? Makes things rather interesting to look at.
I have THREE ratchets in this automata. One on the crank arbor so that device is not cranked the wrong way. A second on that central hub close to the center of this picture, and a third linear ratchet for a carriage on top. I've still got to attach the 'paw' for this one.
Currently I have a small ratchet to design for the top wheel you see in the photo. I tried a curved piece of brass as the ratchet 'paw', but it was still too tight for that hub you see in the center to rotate freely when the carriage on top is pulled back by a spring or elastics. (Not attached just yet.) I have a tight space to work with, so that 'paw' arrangement will be difficult to make, but will look quite nice once it's done.
What's left to do is the ratchets, the springs, and then (I hope) some simple cam and wire lever arrangements for the yet-to-be-made fish monger and his fish.

Update #3 - I've had questions regarding the state of my Kyudo Doll, and I'm happy to say I will be working on him once again very soon. A co-worker Brian has recently purchased a 3D printer for his wify who is an Industrial Designer. In testing out the little beasty Brian was nice enough to print off a couple test parts using a couple of my cad creations. One of them is this:
This I am calling this my Kyudo bobbin, and in a sense that's what is is. It will hold my new small nylon pulleys that I purchased a month or so ago, represented here in yellow. This will be attached to the underside of the platform on the Kyudo Karakuri, carefully guiding the cords from the doll down the center of the device and 'aiming' them to a rack of more nylon pulleys at the side.

Photo of 3D print to follow!

Here's the current state of my poor archer-

Not for long!

These in turn will guide the cords to the cam levers on the side. I now plan to remake these levers out of UHMW plastic so that as they slide between those wooden disks, the friction is a low as I can get it!

That's all for now. I'll post photo's of Brian's 3D prints as soon as I have them!

(Big Thanks to Brian W!)

Oh one more photo. Here's all the springs and doodads I've got my hands on now; I'll be busy for quite a while me thinks...