DIY Ping Pong Camera Slider

I took a day of building robots to try a project I have been thinking of for a while.
I built a DIY Camera slider last summer when I was filming on a BMX racing documentry.
It worked very good but I always wanted it to be motorized. It's not that hard to ad a motor and a belt, but I wanted it to have a "Ping Pong" mode so that it doesn't burn a motor if you don't stop it in time.
I bought a geared 5RPM motor, a timing belt, a few small bearings, a terminal block and two switches on Ebay and made a try. I had no idea what speed I should have on the motor and when I made the first test I realised that it's a bit slow (as can be seen in the video clip below). next step is to buy a faster motor and a motor controller.

Slider with timing belt

A geared 5rpm motor, end switch a terminal block and  lot of cables.

I need to clean up the installation now that I know that it works.

A short video demo

Sculpting and painting

I'm waiting for some more wood from Hobbyträ, and in the mean time I work with some sculpting and urethane plastic casting. I did a Rut head sculpt and a  Angrybird (or pingeböng as my daughter call them) co-pilot. I did the sculpts with Sculpey III and casts in Smooth-on 310 Urethane plastic. I prefer Super sculpey but I bought some Sculpey III as a test to know the difference. 

Painted the Angrybird cast and here it is with the original!

I have to start working on some more cockpit details and of course some clothes for the Rut doll. 

Mind game

Both seats are now finished. At least this far, I might ad some things later but that is another update.

I have started building the lower part of the robot. Things are moving quite slow at the moment because I don't have a clear picture of how I want it to look like. I'm trying out different ideas as I go right now, I think I'm on the right track but I can only decide that when I get the whole picture.

Planking of the first top half is almost finished. This is where the mind game goes in on full effect. One part of you doubt every step of the build and the other half is care free and sure that everything is going to be great! Should I continue planking the other side or should I start with the shape of underside to make sure it turn out as I want it?

First seat

The first seat is finished! I'm still working on the other interior details: dashboard and sidepanels.

  

This weekend I'm planing to start working on some of the parts for the underside of the body and the lower body. But first I need to visit materialbutiken for some more supersculpey and wood.

Cockpit

I have begun working with the cockpit. I did the floor and the walls i the same manner as the rest of the body. This time I used 10x1mm pinewood. I used a 1.5x1.5mm strip around the edge (inside and outside) to make a rounded edge. I'm still working on some different designs for the instrument panel.

Next up was the seats! I had a hard time choosing the design but in the end I went for a Hot Rod style seat. I made it in aluminium and wood, the wood parts are just a frame for the seat foam.

First test with the latex fabric as leather imitation.