DJ Bot
Always playing electronic music.
Concept
I really wanted to try making a robot with a more fully articulated arm and this was the perfect opportunity! I got the idea from a friend who's often mixing on his turntable. This was also the occasion to start making larger and more complex props.
Construction
This one was pretty fun to make. This time, making the robot's body didn't take too long and the mechanism wasn't anything new, so I could focus on the turntables. I really liked the idea of embedding lots of speakers in the front for decoration but it was more complicated than I had anticipated. In the end I had to cut the table into lots of smaller pieces that I actually glued around the speakers, which was pretty messy.
New things
- Articulated arm at the shoulder AND elow.
- Tried drawing some details by engraving the metal (like for the lines on the vinyls).
- The chair is actually set on a spring which makes the robots kind of "dance" when you crank it. This wasn't intended but makes for a fun effect.
What needs improvement
- Process for embedding details in props: the process for making the turntable was more laborious than it had to be because I didn't plan it in advance that well.
- Limbs still don't look right: this time the arms came out okay but the legs are really too short. Good thing they're hidden behind the table.
- Engravings on the metal pieces are hard to discern: I tried to draw some buttons between the two vinyls but you can't really see them unless the lighting is just right.
Videos and more pictures
Here are two videos of the robot. You can see the mechanism on the one with a 3/4ers view.