Santa's Shop

Today, some of the shelves are getting a decorative coat of paint.

Most of the moving background pieces are operational. They are pretty noisy and frenetic, so, if they continue running while the 41 "story based" motors (Santa, elves, monkey, clock, tables, etc.) are running, will that detract from "the story?"

I have used drinking birds as Christmas tree ornaments, clocks, wall decorations and most any purpose I can think of. They are simple "heat engines" normally used in a "dunk the beak in water, head cools by evaporation, bird bobs, cycle repeats." Heating the bird's rear end accomplishes the same thing, but in a more controlled fashion.

Wire a 12 ohm, 3 watt resistor into place just below the bulb at the bottom of the bird. Apply five volts dc and--after about a minute of warm up time--the bird will bob.

I removed the right rear panel and connector, then Annelle painted them, then they were restored to position. It was a good test of the modular nature of the display--took about an hour to remove and another hour to restore.

Santa is temporarily "out of the box" for servo wire extensions. Connectors will have to be made and an Arduino programmed (and a hole cut in the floor of the display box) for Santa to become active.

Annelle took the plain white wagon to the art shop and colorized it.

The elves need a place to pile presents, so I designed a toy wagon.

The 3d print files for this can be found here.

I needed to automate the Wheelo to make it an active toy in the Shop.

So, if operating a Wheelo by hand is too boring then you can build your own automated system by following the instructions here.

I'm in the process of hiding cables and organizing wires. Elmer (being the first elf) has a hospital type gown (got to secure that) and unlabeled wires (how many details did I think I could retain?)

For the "Naughty & Nice" shelf, there had to be signs, a sleigh, more elves and decorations. The .stl files for the sign and sleigh are posted in the files on this site.

I used too much force on Elfis' hand trying to get the servo motorized arm into position for a photograph. Although I don't play the guitar, having your hand fall off can't be helpful.

Here's what it looks like on May 4, 2016.

This elf is molded using Sculpy clay, 3d scanned and printed with holes for pipe cleaner legs and arms. The elf is painted and clothes are hand made. Instructions for doing this can be found here.

The swing is operated using a servo motor. The base is made using wood and the swing itself is 3d printed. Files can be found here.

Here, the drumsticks (without an operator) play the drum.

Inside the drum are electromagnets while ordinary magnets are in the drumsticks.

For full details on how to construct, go here.