David Owensby
Page 2


David Owensby in the seat of his Time Machine

A bit of news: July 4-6, I did an outside public display of my time machine here in Idyllwild. The response was great! I noted that a lot of people had not seen the new movie. And many people thought my machine was the Rod Taylor machine. I had some photos of both to try to educate the interested.

As satisfying as the response was, sometimes I wished I had the Pal machine. (Maybe that's the next project ;-)) The public display was a little rough on the sculpture.
The reactor ball burst in the sun and left me crambling for a replacement. The rotors started to slip and the noise from the motors got real annoying after a while. Every night I would take the valuable parts off and take them home with me and then reinstall them in the morning. Sometime
fabricating new parts for the next day. For the first day and a half, it
seemed like I was constantly working on the machine. All in all, just like a movie set.

So right now the machine is in pieces. I'm using this time to repaint,
repair and reinforce, and Maybe redesign, too. I did make some improvements before it went on display: "Popeye" strut arms and "dog collar" bolt rings around the ball.
Play ball from Walmart painted with auto upholstery paint. I am now
using FleckStone under the black vinyl paint for that cast iron look. Bolt
rings made from Fomcor®, vinyl fabric and tacks. Paint can and lid plus film can and prescription bottle make up the other details. Crazy glue works for holding everything down. The pegs are for the brass arms.
Mason jars from 99¢or less. Inside is cellophane.
Looks better than chocolate milk.
My attempt to get an action shot of the rotors in motion.
Rotors counter-rotate
Electrical pipe fittings and curved shelf bracket from Home Depot.
Plastic boxes are industrial style from a plastics house.
Here is my Quick and Dirty Barber's chair. I used a mixture
of toy appliqués and routing, profile was cut on a band saw.
These are the under deck coils. I used styrofoam from an electronics
box, painted the ends and wrapped the center in torn rags. Wires were added with silicone glue. To the right is the redone front left piston.
This is the front cone showing the rotisserie motor
and arm support ring.
The wires for the motor run down the pipe support frame. There is a small bulb under the blue cone.
My own design of a time machine control panel. A garden ball held in place by the lid from a 5-gal. paint bucket. Painted thread spools surround the ball for the Babbage effect.
The ball sits on a translucent vase.
Foot pads were stock 12" x 3/4" plywood circles.
Plastic disk was cut from paint bucket lid. (see control) Tacks, ribbon and thumb tacks plus plumbing flange.
Round plastic boxes were painted and computer
drawn dials were taped inside.
Some of the dials have my name, some say "health insurance", "blood pressure", "unemployment insurance" and "artistic creativity".
This is what it looks like with everything put together. Reactor ball, brass arms etc.. These are the new arms with plastic cups for the fittings and the "Popeye" style. "Popeye" arms and "dog collars" on the ball.
This shows the fuse panel and "wood" box on the left side below deck. The fuses were cut dowels, painted and wrapped in a computer printed label. I could almost sell them at Home depot!
This is what I really wanted for a time control! Mabey three rows of eight tubes and setting knobs. I know it looks like "Back to the Future", but there is something really cool about big Nixies.
Very rare, very expensive.
Detail shot of the chair with dolphin and shell.

"Popeye" arms and how they attach to the reactor ball. They hang off short pegs glued to the ball.
Fittings slide down to cover the gaps in spacing.

 

To Send Us E-mail
Click Here

If you entered this page from other than our main page
and you are not in a frame set (no page directory on the left)
Click Here

The Time Machine Project © 1998 Don Coleman
Web Site © 1999 Don Coleman
Web site created by Don Coleman
3727 W. Magnolia Blvd. #240
Burbank, CA 91505