Issue 52 February 2026

12 Miniature Time Traveller Before you glue anything up you need to drill some holes. For the cords to go from the arms to the mechanism drill two holes in the ceiling piece. Hole 1 is 20 mm in from left side and 20mm from front edge. Hole 2 is 30mm from right side and 20mm from front edge. There has to be a hole for the shaft which is a 4mm dowel but you can use whatever thickness you want as long as the holes on either side are going to allow it to move. Tape the sides together with masking tape and drill both at once. A rough guide is around the 20cmmark from the floor, and central to the front and backs. Hole for lighting: a strip of LED lights was used and a hole drilled around the 16cmmark from the floor, that was big enough for the strip to be fed into the casing. These strips have a removable backing as they are self adhesive. It was easier to remove this before feeding through the hole. Any painting to do? Do it now while it is all in pieces. The wall paper in this example was pasted on after the sides and back were in place. The sides are glued against the back side edges. The top, ceiling and bottom is glued between the sides. Fig. 5 The front consisted of a clear acrylic sheet 3mm thick cut to size, 11.8 cm x 21 cm. It slides up and down the slots made in the front framing. Glue the mitre ended top of the frame onto the acrylic sheet when it is in place in the slot. This will then come down and fit neatly every time the front needs to be raised. Depending on what sort of figure you end up with, do a dry run with it sitting behind the table before fixing the table and chair into place. Ensure that the table is well back from the sliding panels slot in the frame. When you are happy, fix things into place. I used a cable tie around the figures waist and fed it through holes in the back. This prevents her moving with the movement of the arms. Later two pieces of strong black cotton are fed through the ceiling holes to be tied around her wrist, this providing the method of movement as the cam is rotated. This cotton is attached to the mechanism. Think about what is going on the table. There are tarot cards to photocopy on the next page. There definitely has to be a crystal ball. To work out the measurements of the movement of the arms upward and what would be required for space for the cogs and wheels in the top of the casing, this was first tried out with a bit of thick wire then refined into a more traditional series of cogs. This is an extremely simple mechanism, suited more to my beginner status, but I am sure this will evolve into more complicated projects in the future. At this point it is worth mentioning that the usual position for the mechanism is one that works from the bottom. And it could still work from the bottom with a bit of tweaking of the design of the figurine, which, in this case, determined that the movement come from above. A good site to go to online is Carnegie Mellon University and there is a 40 page instruction manual you can download which would be amazingly helpful to you. Thank you Carnegie Mellon University. That information was just right for me. Glue the top of the frame to the acrylic sheet. The artwork glued to the front hides the mechanism. The mechanism Fig.5 Fig.6