I want to make a washing machine painting;a hard rectangle board with a round board and you pull a lever.How do I?

I want to make an interactive painting of a washing machine. The person pulls a lever and the round board spins (easy version) or the person puts in a coin that causes the round board to spin. I can't figure out what goes on behind the artwork to make it work. And is there a book or online site to show me how to make simple gears and levers? I'm thinking about going back to school to learn mechanical engineering; that's how much I want to do kinetic art. Something like a wheel of fortune comes to my mind. I get it down simply,now...later I add laundromat sounds! Ok,I like laundromats. There ,I said it! Thanx in advance for your help!

Comments

[Gorfram]

You want your lever to be (or drive) the "rack" portion of a rack and pinion gear system. The associated Wikipedia article on Gears gets a little too in-depth in places, but is still not a bad place to start.

(Apropos of nothing really, I hate laundromats. But that's just me.)

[jtobako]

A ratcheted wheel would work just as well-think about the recoil on a lawn-mower.

For a coin operated, just the weight of the coin rolling down a bar on the wheel would get it to spin-how fast depends on how much the wheel weighed.

For light weight use, you could try http://www.cabaret.co.uk/ and http://www.flying-pig.co.uk/ If I remember correctly, both have basic how-to's on kinetic art.

[Gorfram]

go with jtobako's info - he seems much better informed in this area than I am