Project Information
John Hutchison designed and built many great whimsical woodworking projects. John shared many of his ideas, techniques and plans here on Lumber Jocks https://www.lumberjocks.com/johnhutchinson as well as publishing in several magazines like Woodcraft Magazine and Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts. I only recently came upon Johns work and as I researched deeper into the man and his achievements, I was very saddened to learn of his passing last year.
For my version of John's Dynamo Men Lamp, I was able to track-down from a local library, a copy of the Woodcraft Magazine issue #74 where the plan published. I also consulted with Dale Maley who made and presented his version on LJ back in late 2016 and also posted his 'Trials & Tribulations' on his site https://dalemaley.webs.com/dynamo-men-nov-2016. The parts kit referenced in the Woodcraft publication that John used to supply are no longer available (John's website where this and other parts kits could be ordered is no longer active) so the little motor and hardware needed to be sourced elsewhere. For me, in Nanaimo British Columbia, I had some difficulty finding the 4" and 2.5" long machine screws and the Synchronous motor locally and ended up ordering these on Amazon. The little motor I was able to get had a 7mm diameter shaft requiring a different driveshaft arrangement than the original plan. I, like others, splurged to get the mirrored-top light bulb but I don't think that was really necessary and the little lamp might actual be better with a more traditional bulb.
I used maple for the case and Baltic birch for the gears and base. I milled the gears on my ten year old home-built CNC machine (one day it is just going to stop working and I'm going to be left with an very odd looking storage table) which was not necessary and probably resulted in some excessive tear-out compared to just using a scroll saw. Following the lead of Dale and others, the men were made from contrasting hardwoods, specifically walnut, yellow heart, purple heart and padauk.
In all, this was a fun and pretty straight forward project. Next up will be John's 'If I only Had A Brain'. It took some work to scrounge up the original published plans for that one but that's another story for when I compete and post my version.
For my version of John's Dynamo Men Lamp, I was able to track-down from a local library, a copy of the Woodcraft Magazine issue #74 where the plan published. I also consulted with Dale Maley who made and presented his version on LJ back in late 2016 and also posted his 'Trials & Tribulations' on his site https://dalemaley.webs.com/dynamo-men-nov-2016. The parts kit referenced in the Woodcraft publication that John used to supply are no longer available (John's website where this and other parts kits could be ordered is no longer active) so the little motor and hardware needed to be sourced elsewhere. For me, in Nanaimo British Columbia, I had some difficulty finding the 4" and 2.5" long machine screws and the Synchronous motor locally and ended up ordering these on Amazon. The little motor I was able to get had a 7mm diameter shaft requiring a different driveshaft arrangement than the original plan. I, like others, splurged to get the mirrored-top light bulb but I don't think that was really necessary and the little lamp might actual be better with a more traditional bulb.
I used maple for the case and Baltic birch for the gears and base. I milled the gears on my ten year old home-built CNC machine (one day it is just going to stop working and I'm going to be left with an very odd looking storage table) which was not necessary and probably resulted in some excessive tear-out compared to just using a scroll saw. Following the lead of Dale and others, the men were made from contrasting hardwoods, specifically walnut, yellow heart, purple heart and padauk.
In all, this was a fun and pretty straight forward project. Next up will be John's 'If I only Had A Brain'. It took some work to scrounge up the original published plans for that one but that's another story for when I compete and post my version.
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