robothut Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 With a name like Chief Smoky you would think this guy would fill the Sky with smoke. Well Mine does not. The good news is that the smoker inside the robot head is actually a good little smoker, the problem is in how they decided to move the air past the smoker. They decided to have a metal flap slap aginst a hole in a plastic box. Now the problem with this approach is two fold. First when you want a good smoking effect you never have the outgoing air move at sonic metal slapping speeds and the second problem is that each slap is new air moving up to the smoker. Now in a normal 1950s / 1960s smoking toy they would use a bellows to move the air and the reason is that air is pushed past the smoker on the way out and then new air is sucked back in past the smoker when the bellows open up again, then when the bellows is sqeezed the next time you get the smoke that was sucked into the tube and bellows pluse the smoke that is generated as its pushed out. Twice the smoke. Also the bellows are not slaped at a sonic speed they are smothly compressed so that the smoke air is not pushed out so fast that you can not see the smoke before it mixes with the out side air.Check out this short You Tube video of how noce the repro chief smoky can smoke with a simpl bellows mod and also I added a light flasher smich to the bellows for the head light. Oh and don;t forget to turn those head antennas around when your in there poking around.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fioYo3V1kCA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted November 14, 2009 Author Share Posted November 14, 2009 The white stuff you see on the black plastic box down in the robot guts is tissue paper. The old Japan toys used to use a kind of rice paper when they made there bellows glued to a card board frame "like a book" with a soft spring inside to keep it open. So I took the spring that was already there and just flipped it around to the back side of the air pump, now the metal flap wants to stay open instead of slapping shut. Then I took some tissue paper and glued it to the metal flap and the plastic box so that when the flap moves I now have a bellows effect of pushing air and sucking air back. When the cam swimgs around it now pushes the metal bellows door in to a compressed mode pushing air up past the smoker and out and when the cam swing past, the bellows open up again sucking back in air threw the smoker filling the tube with smoke for the next go around. I then decided that it would be cool if the light in the head would flash instead of just staying ON all thime. So I glued a plastic insulator to the metal flap of the bellows and then glued on a brass contact. Now if you remove the battery negative wire from being soldered to the metal battery box frame you can run this battery ground wire to the brass contact I just added. This way the ground connection to the frame of the robot happens every time the cam pushed on the bellows and so the light in the head that is connected to frame ground also will light with every puff of smoke.. Flipping the head antennas around is easy as there are just 3 tabs on the head top then just reverse the antenna wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roboto Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 What a great update to the smoke and I like the look of the antenna going back . :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nasa Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Nice work John.....very impressive....he almost looks like he is blowing smoke rings.....enjoyed the viedo nasa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robobob Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Thanks John, my Chief is now blowing smoke rings like he should be !Pretty cool when the robot AND the fix-it instructions arrive on the same day !!! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothunter Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Rock on, John. Rock on. As I sat throughout the day at the Morphy auction I could feel the shift in the energy of the universe. I knew it could mean only one thing. Rigg had taken apart another helpess new reproduction within hours of its birth to already suggest possible improvements/upgrades/customizations. It was cleary a shift in the force.Rock on.............rock on........... ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted November 15, 2009 Author Share Posted November 15, 2009 Glad you had some fun robobob with the update ideas. Did you go with the flashing head light as well or just the smoke airpump update? Also If a person wanted to do some extra work for a little bit more smoke then replace the pointy finger like cam that pushes on the new bellows with a slopping 1/2 round cam, this way the air will be more evenly pushed out and the bellows will suck the smoke / air back in slower and this will yeild even more smoke the next time the bellows pushes the air/smoke out.Oh one more thing that you could add at very little cost. Since the light in the head draws over 250ma, you could place a smaller lamp (60ma or less)or LED with ressitor in the body across the negative battery main post and the frame ground post and this will make the new smaller lamp or LED light when ever the head lamp is OFF and the new lamp will turn OFF when ever the head lamp is ON and nice alternate light effect like was used in the ALphabot. This would place a flashing light effect inside the body that would look cool threw the 2 body vents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robobob Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Hi John,Nope, I just did the smoker. I thought about the light, and was actually thinking about a different camto slow the bellows down, like you said. However, the work area is a disaster already, since I've been in the middle of a new (and hopefully cool)garage-bot conversion, so it was just open & shut for the Chief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyman Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 I haven't looked into this yet but how easy is it to open Chief Smokey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted November 16, 2009 Author Share Posted November 16, 2009 Just use a flat blade to pry off the side parts, then bend the tabs out, remove the tab washers, bend out the the two tabs on the bottom and lift the front off. Thats it. Only the shoulder and under arm tabs show so there is little to mess up from a paint stand point. Too put the side parts back on propperly you will need a very small drill bit or a glasses type mini screw driver to place in the tab bending holes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil R Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Just got my Chief! Way cool! What a great repro. Before you take apart the head to reverse the antenna try just rotating them front to back. Mine was very easy repositioning them without taking the hat off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nasa Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Just got my Chief! Way cool! What a great repro. Before you take apart the head to reverse the antenna try just rotating them front to back. Mine was very easy repositioning them without taking the hat off.Thanks Phil....worked like a charm.....Cheif Rocks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nasa Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Just use a flat blade to pry off the side parts, then bend the tabs out, remove the tab washers, bend out the the two tabs on the bottom and lift the front off. Thats it. Only the shoulder and under arm tabs show so there is little to mess up from a paint stand point. Too put the side parts back on propperly you will need a very small drill bit or a glasses type mini screw driver to place in the tab bending holes.John once again thanks for the tips.....regards Mark/nasa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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