
Sculptor, kinetic artist, and longtime MAKE pal Alan Rorie is back with this beautiful “pressure door” built for a Nautilus-themed art car commissioned from San Francisco art collective Five Ton Crane.
The door locks and unlocks via RFID, and the huge, four-foot diameter mechanical iris in its center is motorized:
The motorization of the large aperture was surprisingly easy. I used two small DC motors with spur gears and nice torque mounted on either side of the cam ring. I then welded chain around the cam ring turning it into a giant gear. It worked the first time I tried it. I controlled the two motors with an Arduino and a motor shield, two limit switches and a few lines of code. I then modified an old positioner and inserted a set of buttons, so that when you pull the handle of the positioner it trips the buttons and turns the motors.
Rorie, who is a specialist in iris apertures, also built four smaller irising windows for the car’s body. There are many more beautiful pictures in Alan’s Flickr Set. [Thanks, Alan!]
More:
- An iris by any other name?
- How-To: Paper Iris Glasses
- Handmade Irising Wristwatch Cover
- Free Irising Business Card Template
- Printable Iris-Lid Jewelry Box, With Video
- Brass amd Wood “Pressure Door” with Iris, Handwheel
- Motorized Iris Based on Chris Schaie’s Design
- Secret Knock-Detecting Workshop Door


Stargate Command will be contacting you soon.
How heavy is this thing? And how slowly will it move? Judging just from the door, the weight must be enormous…
I would like to thanks for creating this interesting blog, because its having the good entertainment.
I would like to thanks for creating this interesting blog
This project wasn’t commissioned from San Francisco art collective Five Ton Crane, it was commissioned and funded by the folks I work for Chris and Amber Marie Bently:
http://thebolditalic.com/hudin/stories/1214-workin-for-the-man
They also worked on the original idea- it’s been something they both talked about with our design department for years, we did a lot of artwork along the way for this.
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