From http://www.kevincaron.com – Artist Kevin Caron answers viewers’ questions about how to make a sculpture – or anything else – spin in the wind. We first find him playing with Genome Project, one of his sculptures. Then he takes us inside his studio and shows a stand like the one Genome Project sits on. It’s actually a used harrow disk from a farm implement. Caron fillled in the hole on the top of the disk by welding some metal stock in the opening, then drilled a hole in it to match the size of the sculpture’s shaft. Because this particular disk was pretty worn down, Caron didn’t have enough room beneath it to put the mount and two bearings that allows the sculpture to spin. So he added a “lift kit” of a 1/2″ piece of square tubing that he shaped in his Chinese pipe bender (also called a stock bender) then welded it into place on the bottom rim of the disk. Inside the disk, he takes a piece of C-channel – which offers enough support to hold up the sculpture – and welds it inside the disk, aligned with the hole. Then he shows the bearings he is using. They are small flanges with bearings in the middle. They have a grease fitting that allows you to grease it every six months or year to keep the sculpture spinning. He chose this particular type of bearing because the hole matches the size of the 3/4″ shaft of the sculpture that will sit on top of it. He used two bearings because they are made to mount sideways, with the weight on the vertical axis. When you mount them horizontally, or flat, and put the load above the bearing, there is some freeplay, or wobble, that can be pronounced in a tall sculpture. Depending upon the height of the sculpture, an 1/8″ of an inch wobble at the bearing can translate to a variance of 6 – 8″ at the top of a sculpture, allowing it to sway. He mounts one bearing on top of the C-channel and the other on the bottom, so they cancel each other’s “slop,” or “run out.” The sculpture can still spin freely but without the freeplay, or wobble. Caron got the bearings at a local supplier of industrial bearings called Motion Industries. You can also find the bearings at Grainger and online. Caron paid about $35 each for these 3/4″, 2-bolt flange bearings, which are rated to a very high weight rating for his needs. See more how-to videos at http://www.kevincaron.com
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Yes!!!! Sculpture in background?????
Do a video on that... how many balls, spheres are needed? How many sides does it have? And anything threw the middle?
Good man who appreciated engineering in art. In fact I always say that all the foundations of art is engineering structure and the art part is the emotions that observers in front of the unit generate themselves with their own imagination. All art which is enclosed in a dark room retains only its engineering structure and art only forms when there is a human observer in front of it. Art is not in the item but in the observer who generates the art himself, In fact I call art emotional drug and all artists are in fact drug trafficers using engineering based substance!!!
As far as those bearing are concerned at 3:24, the action of those bearings do not cancel each other out, but they are meant to find the right centre if there is a misalignment and they gimbal in a spherical support. If one uses two at a distance from each other, they line up the rod in them and as there is no slack in the ball bearings and inner and outer races then the shaft retains its alignment but it is not " cancels the other". Congratulations on your appreciation of engineering parts that other throw away.
Such an inspirational guy. Gosh I want to make some nice art with my everlast welder. part of the reason I bought it was because I saw Kevin's videos.
/what kind of paint did u use? in this sculpture kevin
Hey Kevin! Since Your inspiring other sculpture artist by your work and you asked for photos, maybe a segment on other artists work via their photos sent in would cool to see what you have inspired?
I’d still like to see a video with you building a piece.
I think the wobble is called Yaw.
Kevin,check out the beginning of a movie called Wolfen.A woman is walking through a park when she goes by a sculpture constructed using long flatbar stock at different lengths.When the wind blows through the structure a beautiful chiming sound is produced as the flatbar contacts each other.An assortment of different tones are created.True beauty
★★★★★
Me and my dad have found this old washing machine part, and a stand that goes with it. It in itself can spin, but we're wondering what positioning we should attach these long, concave half-tubes we have so it can catch the wind? Thanks!