Low Budget Mechanised Movable Eyes

Intro: Low Budget Mechanised Movable Eyes

Hellooo Instructables!

Halloween is fast approaching once again and I would like to share with you a cheap way to add movable eyes to your cosplay, props or puppets.

To be fair this can be used at anytime of the year not just Halloween

This is a really cheap and easy instructables that requires no specialist tools and costs next to nothing for materials.

Let's begin.....

STEP 1: Taking It Apart

Now different brands of roller all deodorant may be constructed differently but most have a similar set up to the one i am using.

Take off the lid and separate the ball and it's housing from the main body/deodorant chamber. You can usually squeeze/pry it out but if you are having difficulty you can soak it in some warm water to soften the plastic.

Once you have the ball and its housing separated, remove the ball (you should be able to just pop it out from the back and give both pieces a really good wash and make sure they are completely dry before the next part.

STEP 2: Making the Cut

The housing should have a cross section similar to the one pictured, cut these out with your scissors.

You can ignore this next step if you are using a glue gun.

Using your craft knife carefully trim away a section of the ridges at the back end of the housing (the part that would have been inside the main body). This is just to make a flat surface for a more secure attachment if you are using glue. Do this on opposite sides of the housing.

Using a lollipop stick as a "base" glue both of your housings in place. The spacing of which is up to you depending on your needs but a good ratio is to have the width of one housing between the housings you are gluing.

Attach another lollipop across the top.

If you want you can trim off any excess.

STEP 3: Making the Mechanism

Lay out your lollipop sticks with one running parallel to the housings/eye sockets and two laying straight out of the back of the housings/eye sockets onto the parallel one. It should form a square.

Using your thumb tack, make a hole at the end of one of the sticks coming from the housing/eye socket. Be careful not to split the lollipop but if you do its not the end of the world as you can tape it up.

Keeping the pin in the lollipop stick use it to mark where the hole will be on the stick that runs parallel to the housings. it should still be at a right angle.

Remove the thumb tack and make a hole in the lower/parallel lollipop stick and repeat for the other side.

Take your paper clip and straighten it out.

From this cut two smaller pieces (depending on your paper clip size this may be in half or you may have a third bit of excess)

Feed the paper clip wire through the top hole so it sits roughly half on each side and fold on side flat against the lollipop stick.

Put tape around the wire and lollipop stick. It doesn't need to hold the wire in place its just to stop any pointy bits.

Feed the other end of wire into the hole of the parallel lollipop stick, bend and tape as above so it forms a moveable joint.

Repeat for the other side.

You Can trim off any excess/shorten the lollipop sticks if need be.

STEP 4: Almost Done

Most of the roller balls will have a "seam" that goes around the circumference. Making sure that you have a smooth section with out the seam to the "front", use the craft knife carefully to cut a line in the "back" of the ball, roughly the same width as your lollipop stick.

Push the lollipop stick that would go into the housing into the cut to make sure it fits. Remove it and repeat for the other ball.

Push both balls/eyes back into the housings/sockets with the cut to the back.

Push the lollipop "stems" into cuts.

And that's the mechanism

You can now paint/decorate them but be sure to move them about as you do so so you dont miss any bits.

As always I hope you enjoyed this instructable and as always, thoughts, comments and even photos of your own eyes or where they end up are always welcome in the comments section below.

Comments

[DarrenG48]

I have always been inspired by Jeff Dunham's Achmed the dead terrorist puppet, with its moving eyes and eyebrows to make my own such puppet. Only it would be a Grim Reaper type character. I like this project, but the instructions and the photos would have been easier to follow if they were numbered to correspond with each other. Or have the instructions captioned under the photos, accordingly.

[Barry Neeson]

Noted, thanks : )

[The Proponista]

Do you have a way to make it automatically move without any like complicated electronic made of stuff people have?

[Barry Neeson]

Not currently but a metronome type device could be fashioned to make them move from side to side

[Ghloo]

That is sometjing I would mak for my nephew, if I were able to do the puppet too. o)

A tip on side: some years ago I was making animatronic eyes for a pumpkin. I used ping pong balls each in its cardboard frame. I made a small hole thru for a wire (as to have a rotation axis) and a hole for 10m red LED (you want glowing eyes too, right?) at the back. The (hot-glued) LED`s wires were hooked to 1)power, of course and 2) servo arm, serving as a lever. But you probably have seen this in some animatronic pumpkin ible already. :o)

[Barry Neeson]

Glowing eyes? Absolutely! I was thinking initially mounting a small on/off switch and power source from an electronic tea light and extending/splitting the wiring (great minds/fools and all that ) :)

[Ghloo]

There is always the next tiny step of improvement to be made, it just should not prevent one from actually making it (as it is too often happening to me). :D
Anyway, the feature I was highlighting is that (in the large-ish) pumpkin I could use the hot-glued LED legs as servo lever. With a muppet, I guess you will need to be craftier. ;o)

[DonJ46]

Reuse technology at its finest! Love it!! (Now I gotta go out and dig through the apartment recycling bins!!)

[Barry Neeson]

Thank you and happy hunting :)

[ElizabethD97]

Do you have an instructable on how you made your puppet too? Looks cool! I'd love to see the design!

[Barry Neeson]

Hi,
Not currently but's its pretty much just kids air dry clay modelled around a milk carton :)

[Tweetysvoice]

Very clever! This a project the kids could do! Too bad we don't use that type of deodorant, but I'm sure Dollar tree has some.

[Barry Neeson]

Thank you. The roller ball deodorant is pretty easy to find : )

[indivisibl]

Really cool project, thanks for sharing 👀

[Barry Neeson]

No worries : )