# The Entertainer



## tmuir (Oct 3, 2009)

I really made this video for another forum on toy steam engines but I had so much fun making it I thought I would share it here.

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The piano player I made about 7 years ago when I didn't own any power tools so it was made with just a dovetail saw, fret saw, 1/2 inch chisel, hand drill and a screw driver.

The engine is a PM research 3BM. It is a machined kit that just needed assembly.

Enjoy.


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## dsquire (Oct 3, 2009)

tmuir

Very nice. A steam engine is always nice but it is much nicer when it is doing something except just running. I like the little player piano that you have made to go with it. Have you given any thought to having the player piano make the actual sound? :bow: :bow:

Cheers

Don


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## rcplanebuilder (Oct 3, 2009)

dsquire  said:
			
		

> tmuir
> 
> Very nice. A steam engine is always nice but it is much nicer when it is doing something except just running. I like the little player piano that you have made to go with it. Have you given any thought to having the player piano make the actual sound? :bow: :bow:
> 
> ...



Agreed, great stuff!... 

Maybe a music box in the piano, also driven by the engine?


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## tmuir (Oct 3, 2009)

dsquire  said:
			
		

> tmuir
> Have you given any thought to having the player piano make the actual sound? :bow: :bow:
> 
> Cheers
> ...



Yes I have but as this piano player was only ever meant to be cranked by hand I would have to rejig a lot of it.....unless I made a third pulley in the centre and fixed the music movement to the back of the piano................... Food for thought.


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## RobWilson (Oct 3, 2009)

Very enterraining Tony :bow: :bow: :bow:
i see you have used some of XL's line shaft brackets 


Regards Rob


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## arnoldb (Oct 3, 2009)

Tmuir, that put a smile on my dial ;D - Most entertaining!

Regards, Arnold


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## Brian Rupnow (Oct 3, 2009)

Great piano player tmuir!!! You get a karma for that,----Brian


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## deere_x475guy (Oct 3, 2009)

Very nice indeed...


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## bearcar1 (Oct 3, 2009)

Puts a smile on my face. Quite a novel idea that is, are there any more animated figures in your collection and where did yo obtain the drawings (if any) from? Nicely done project "T". ;D

BC1
Jim


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## tmuir (Oct 3, 2009)

bearcar1  said:
			
		

> Puts a smile on my face. Quite a novel idea that is, are there any more animated figures in your collection and where did yo obtain the drawings (if any) from? Nicely done project "T". ;D
> 
> BC1
> Jim



Hi JIm,

I've got a dancing Red Coat and a half carved lumber jack waiting for me to get the wood working bug back.
The piano man is straight out of the book
'Whacky Toys, Whirligigs & Whatchamacallits' by Rodney Frost 
The book has lots of other fun animated figures in it but I tend not to do much woodwork now. Prfer playing with my lathes.

Heres a link to the book on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Whacky-Whirligigs-Whatchamacallits-Rodney-Frost/dp/0806992867/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254584878&sr=8-1


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## ariz (Oct 3, 2009)

very nice tmuir, a smile in this sad saturday night :-*


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## zeeprogrammer (Oct 3, 2009)

Very enjoyable video and a great looking boiler and engine.

Also thanks for the reference to the book. Although I've never built one, whirligigs had a role in my finding this great hobby (machining).


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## Brian Rupnow (Oct 3, 2009)

I have always loved whirlygigs. One of my favourites was the 'Dancing man". My dad and all of my uncles were lumberjacks in central/northern Ontario where I grew up, and My uncle Charlie Martin used to whittle these little wooden men about 6" tall with jointed arms and legs, and the Dancing man would be mounted on the end of a stick about 16" long with notches carved into the top side of it. Uncle Charlie would set in a chair and hold the end of the stick in one hand with the Dancing man resting on his knee. Then he would sing or whistle and run the back side of his jacknife over the stick with the notches in it. ---and the vibration would make the little wooden man leap and dance and swing his arms and legs about in tune with Uncle Charlies singing. I used to just love it at the end of winter when all the loggers came out of the camps ---Every year Uncle Charlie would have a new dancing man carved for me. I can remember laughing untill I rolled on the floor when I was 7 or 8 years old watching the Dancing mans antics.---Brian


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## tmuir (Oct 3, 2009)

Sounds like your dancing man is very similar to mine.
The way mine works is you sit on a chair and have a plank of wood about 45cm long, 10cm wide and 5mm thick and hold the man via the stick so his feet just rests on the board and flick the board down so it rebounds, hits the feet and makes him dance.


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## Brian Rupnow (Oct 3, 2009)

Tmuir---I guess little dancing men are pretty well the same no matter which side of the world they are dancing on!!! ;D ;D---Brian


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## tmuir (Oct 3, 2009)

To be fair mine is from a book who I think the author is from Canada


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## black85vette (Oct 3, 2009)

Hey, wait a minute!!! I thought to drive wacky contraptions on this forum you had to use one of Chuck Fellow's engines! th_rulze

Seriously, very cool. One of the few things on this forum my wife has seen and then said "You could make one of those"  Not sure how she meant it. Hopefully she was not implying that I was not able to make the cool engines like some of you guys make. ;D


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