Drummer Automaton

This small kinetic sculpture is designed based on the wooden automaton that plays drum at the turn of a crank.

Working on this model, I tried to capture the movement of a drummer while keeping it simple and clean so it makes a good display model as well.

The hardest part was building a drummer that can translate the simple mechanism into dynamic drumming motion while keeping it at the scale that I was aiming at.

Reproducing an automaton with Lego is fun but challenging as you cannot diy your own parts. After many trials and errors, I managed to build one that I am happy with. Check out the video below to see it in action.

https://youtu.be/QwJMdqRO7_c

As you can see in the video, what’s fun about this model is that both the arms and legs move independently and play snare drum, hi-hat, cymbal and bass drum with different beats. I also added a lever on the side that triggers the cymbal and bass drum manually.

Overall, I really like how it turned out and it would make a unique, charming addition to your collection. If you like it, please give your support!

Thank you for your time and keep on building!