Radical Smoker Robot Conversion

[robothut]

I wanted to blend the lines between many of the classic skirt robots like Talking Robot, Mr. Robot, Radical/Chief robot, Modern robot, Chief Smoky and so on. So here is Radical Smoker robot. You have the Chief robot Stop and Go / Bump and Go action with turning head. The head is translucent plastic so the flashing light inside lights up the head. I placed a rebuilt smoking unit from a repro smoking robot in the head. The smoker now vents out the top, this also makes adding more smoking fluid later very easy. The eyes are lit at all times. I shot a short video of the head and smoke action. I purposely rotated the camera 90 degrees so that I could keep a tight shot on the head but still see the smoke comeing out the top stack. So this first link is for that video, just trun your head to the side.

http://www.robothut.robotnut.com/RadSmoker.wmv

Then I took that same video and rotated it in a video conversion program, it plays fine as a file on my computers Windows media player but it may not for you, or you may have to right click and save the file to your computer fist them play it windows.

http://www.robothut.robotnut.com/RadSmoker2.wmv_rotated.avi

Here is a web page on the project.

http://www.robothut.robotnut.com/RadicalSmoker.html

the project was built for 9tobor9.

[robothut]

Here is a side shot.

[robothut]

Front.

[robothut]

angle.

[robothut]

side angle.

[robothut]

rear shot.

[robothut]

Here is a shot of the smoking unit and head dome. In order to make the smoking unit work for this project, I first move the smoke exit port to the top of the smoker unit. Then I cut down the lenth of the bellows plunger. I used a nano scale gear motor to drive the plunger in and out, but I did not want the robot to smoke all the time so I also added a contact switch to the gear box unit so the smoker bellows motor only runs when the head turn action is happening.

[robothut]

I built up a new front grill to help with the new look. The grill is made from plastic, wood and resin. The actual grill its self is from a junker china made toy car. The face part is resin cast like is explained the last conversion for RobotHunter.

[laserman]

Nice one John!! Did you have to add additional batteries for the smoker unit?

I see those domes for the head are getting used a lot. I used one to on a conversion I'm finishing up. I'll post pics tomorrow after I fix a problem with a belly light I'm installing.

[Andyman]

Beautiful work, Mr. Rigg. I love it! Actually smoke coming out of a chimney makes more sense than coming out of the mouth.

Question: Is it physically possible to have smoke come out of the back of a robot via a L shape tube? I was thinking something more Victorian or steampunk looking not unlike my Stoke.

Edit: I just looked at the video and wow does that smoke shoot out! Way cool!

[robothut]

The robot still runns on 2 D cell batterys, over all the robot draws less curent than a Smokeing robot repro because the smoking robot repro has 2 high curent eye lights and the dome light that is always on, this robot just has a dome/head light that flashes with the head turn action. The smoker works better than the stock ones in repro smoking robots because the bellows air travels past(threw) the heater wire/wick then out, on the repro smoker the air travel does not pass threw the heater/wick it passes below it, all other smoker units from toys ever made that I have taken apart the air travels threw the heater/wick then out, so I did the same thing here.

Andy as for pipeing the smoke to other locations it can be done. For example there is the old charily weaver bartender that smokes from his ears, this toy uses a "Y" pipe to do this but the total pipe lenth is not very long. If the pipe lenth holds a air volume that is greater than what the bellows can move (refresh) then no smoke will come out. So if this is your case, do not use a bellows use a mini fan this way you can move a unlimited amount of fresh air into then out of the smoker and threw a pipe to any part of the robot. In both cases of useing a bellows or a fan the important thing to remember is to keep the air movemt slow, if you move the air to fast you will not be able to see effect as well.

I have plans for a steam punk robot as well and it will have a smoke effect, but I have not nailed down the project just yet.

[Andyman]

Oh I have no plans for doing that myself at this time. I just wondered what the limitations of the smoker placement was. Thanks.

[robothunter]

AWESOME!!!! And I love the clear head and that you see it light up each time it smokes! I swear it's not a Robby thing, but all robots should have clear heads so you can see what's going on. It's what made Robby great. And B-9. And the very best Star Wars Droids, in my opinion, were the ones with clear domes. And all the Mr. Robots, including giant Jupiter Robot. And now this wonderful new creation from you! Just fantastic as always, Mr. Rigg! But the best is that super cool 1960's looking chromed grill! I love the grill!

That's why at some point I want us to do a real 1950's styled robot representative of the car styings of that period and I want it all in black and chrome. No two things look as cool together as something in a super glassy rich black with globs of polished chrome all over it.

Hell, I think I just described my scooter! LOL!! Pretty soon it will be riding time. Ah, life is good............! ;)

[Eagle]

Dang it John,,,,,slow down !!!!!!!!!!!! ;) I'm doing my first Conversion and It's not easy for me. A lot of time just sitting there looking at it ! Hmmm I wonder ???? Nah, that doesn't look right. :o

[Rotate-O-Matic]

Beautiful robot. One day I'm going to save up enough to buy one of your beautiful custom robots Mr. Riggs. I can only guess what work at this level of quality must cost and I don't think I can afford your stuff just yet.

Which is why I'm going to ask an ackward question but one that I can't remember ever seeing asked or answered here. Can you give us an idea of how much a John Riggs custom built robot costs? Do you charge an hourly rate for the work or does each robot have a set price? When you go to see Andy's robots on his site there's a price posted so you know exacty what it costs. But you don't have already built robots listesd for sale on your website so how does someone know what a robot will cost or if they can even afford it?

Have you thought about doing a whole bunch of robots and creating a "FOR SALE" page on your site with listed prices so guys like me can just click and buy with a credit card through Paypal? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but I would like to join the club of guys who have your stuff. And I'm not sure if people are sworn to take an oath of silence when they buy your robots, but I've come right out and asked many people here on Alphadrome what they paid you for your robots and no one will share what they have paid. It's all a great big secret. I just want to be part of the secret club too.

So how about it, a section of already built and priced robots for the regular guy like me to come shop for at the Robot Hut website? I think it's an awesome idea. Even if it is my own!!!!!! LOL!!!! B)