If you’re a budding engineer, a maker, or just someone interested in electro-mechanical engineering, mechanisms, mechatronics, animatronics, or automata, here’s a very interesting guy you need to check out. His name is Tim Hunkin and he’s on YouTube. He creates really fun and bazaar electro-mechanical ‘novelties’ as he calls them. He even has an arcade set up in the UK. You’ll smile when you see some of them!
But don’t be fooled by my description above. He’s a tremendous engineer! He’s got lots of video of him in his shop. He even has a series called ‘The Secret Life Of…’ where he explains a lot of what he’s done. His shop is a mess but is a perfect representation of what a fantastic shop is — and I can’t tell you how much I wish it was my shop! Watch him operate everything from a ball peen hammer to a CNC plasma cutter. And keep your eyes on his walls to see all manner of tools and gadgets.
A small listing of what he includes in his videos are how he prototypes, tests and animates automata. He does some tack welding with MIG and TIG welding, and some work on his metal lathe. There’s much, much more along these lines.
Here’s a good video to start with perhaps. He calls it ‘Hinges – The Secret Life of Components, a series of guides for designers and makers – Episode 3’. But it’s about far more than hinges and includes a lot of what I mentioned in the previous paragraph.