Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Replacing the BIG Rig

 
After thinking it through, I decided a new rig needed to be made for the latest Ruble puppet. My family and I were driving around and we saw a new Hobby Town USA store close to where we live. Looking inside I saw these nice, large telescoping brass tube stocks. Originally I wanted large square stock, but the largest square tubes were only about 1/4" or so.

What's the problem with round stock? When moving a puppet up and down they tend to twist slightly. This causes a wobbly and uneven rising of the puppets body. This means when I use this rig I will need to use either a surface gage - or just tweak the body using the capture program I'm using. So it's not really a big issue thanks to modern technology.

Why did I make this instead of what I had? Well for one thing, it's simple. The other rig I had went up and down and the entire body was on a large ball joint. It gave me maximum motion but isn't accurate to move around. This requires very little to move, just slightly loosen and tighten the hex head cap screw and the puppet stays solidly in place.

The other reason is because this allows me to put it on the set more easily. Just clamp the flat stock on the bottom to the set floor and he can be easily moved and removed.