This one has been a long time coming.  It was just about a month ago that I filmed my friends Marcus and Amber for the music video I’ve been trying to work on here and there on weekends and whatever time I can find available.  I have been busy, which is something I like to say in these blog posts.  Nevertheless, it never ceases to be true.  Numerous times over the past month I have thought to myself that I should post something about my progress as it happened.  Unfortunately, I procrastinated regularly and now I am chronicling the full build in one post.

This is the story of my crazy lazy susan.

The shoot with Marcus and Amber was the first time I’d used it.  At that point it was simply a heavy duty lazy susan part attached to a circular piece of plywood.  My initial plan for rotating it smoothly and consistently was to create a channel around the circumference of the plywood and to then to wind it with fishing line.  Once I’d have my subjects placed in position on the lazy susan, I would then reel in the line and therefore spin the lazy susan at a constant rate.  Unfortunately, first tests proved that that plan was not such a great idea.  It was almost impossible to reel in the line with the weight of two people standing on the lazy susan.  For the shoot I decided to simply rotate it with my hands and I found it very challenging to spin it at a constant rate.

I knew then that I wanted to motorize this sucker.  The only way to get constant motion is to have some kind of motor or crank driving it.  In the edition of MAKE magazine that was out at the time there was an article about a drill powered go-kart.  I really liked the idea of driving something with a drill because a drill is something that is readily available and I didn’t need to spend very much money on it.  The second thing I needed was a bike to take apart.  I stopped by Goodwill and very easily found one for 30 bucks.  Nice!  The next thing I had to figure out was how to modify my lazy susan to use these bike parts.  I conferred with my co-worker Gage and he helped me design a method that could work.  The idea was to raise the lazy susan off the ground with some legs and to have the chainring from the bike coming down from underneath.  Then, I could attach the chain and spin it from beside the lazy susan.

This was a great idea because I wanted the design to be as simple and as portable as was possible.  I decided I needed to find someone who could do a little welding for me.  Luckily, my friend Rob Derry came to the rescue.  Rob is an awesome guy who works in the film industry.  He is truly a renaissance man and does all sorts of cool things.  I met him on Prince Caspian and he was in charge of servicing all of the animatronic heads on that film.  One of his favorite things to do is creating realistic movement in creature design with pneumatics.  One of his most prized creations was a pneumatic version of the the alien in Alien Vs Predator.  He has an amazing workshop full of awesome tools like CNC machines and lathes which he has so graciously (and perhaps mistakenly) offered me the ability to use anytime I have an idea.  I totally appreciate his help and he absolutely rocks.

Needless to say, my welding job proved to be no challenge for him.  He welded a galvanized pipe to my bike chainring for me.  I then attached the chainring to the bottom of my lazy susan with a pipe flange.  The next thing I had to do was stabilize my drill with something that would allow me to hold it steady and tight while I spun it.  Gage and I discussed it some more and we decided that the simplest method would be to use a plank of wood fitted against the legs of the lazy susan.

This seemed simple enough.  The only problem was that I couldn’t keep the chain from falling off.  The lazy susan would spin a couple of times and then the chain would fall right off.  I surmised that there was two reasons why the chain kept falling off.  One reason was that you don’t see many chain-driven objects out there that mounts the chain horizontally.  This way if the chain is not completely tight gravity will simply make it come off.  So, I knew I needed my chain to be nice and taut.  The second reason was because I mounted the pipe slightly off of the center of my lazy susan.  So when I spun it with the drill I could feel the chain tightening and loosening as it spun. So, I needed to design a chain tensioner.  I went as simple as possible and I ultimately decided to us a pulley attached to a spring attached to an eyelet which was mounted on one of the legs of the lazy susan.  This way I could keep the chain nice and taut even as it loosened and tightened while I spun it.

Finally, I had it working pretty darn good.  We filed down the bolt on the cassette from the back wheel on the bike so that it could fit in the drill without slipping.  I connected the smallest gear on the cassette to the largest gear on the chainring below the lazy susan.  This allows for the most amount of torque out of my drill while also allowing me to spin the lazy susan slowly.

We had a pretty good time at my office running the first successful tests with it.  I realized that, even on the slowest gears, if I held the drill at full-throttle the lazy susan would spin pretty damned fast.  I decided to give my co-workers a few rides on it at the end of the day.

After I finish this music video I may install some handles on it and turn it into a full fledged amusement park ride.  I haven’t tested it out on any of the higher gears but then again, I’m a little afraid to.

Check out the video showing off how it works!  I’m pretty happy with the results.