AAW Symposium - Tacoma 1999

Chapter Collaborative Challenge Entry

West Bay Area Woodturners Society

Photo: Roger Austin

"Woodrow the Robot"
"Far Wooden Planet"

Photo: Roger Austin

Well, it all started on a bleak winter day in late February. We were huddled around our lathes at our regular meeting place when someone got the bright idea to possibly enter a piece in the upcoming Collaborative Challenge in Tacoma. It seemed so easy at the time. And, the deadline seemed so far away... Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into.

At our next board meeting the subject was brought up and a lively discussion ensued on what we might turn for the Challenge. Many of the items turned for the Challenge by other clubs were brought up and discarded in turn. It came down to a sculpture piece idea submitted by our membership director, Jeff Loughridge, or a robot idea submitted by our president, Linda Salter. Power is an ugly thing...

Now, what kind of a robot will it be? Somewhere in the back of my mind there was an image of the PERFECT robot. One that was round in all the right places. But where to find such a beast? Why, the internet of course!

After pouring though hundreds of web sites of articulated arms, motorized war machines, automatic bug like creatures and electronics, relays, transistors, egads! Was this going to be possible? Ah! what's that? Robot toys? Collectors?

That's the ticket. Whoa! A robot made almost entirely from round (turned) objects. Robby was his name and THE FORBIDDEN PLANET was the movie he originally starred in in 1956. The movie also featured Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and was the first film for newcomer Leslie Neilson. I dashed down to the video store and sure enough, there it was. Kind of dusty and hard to find. But it seemed to fit the bill.

Also seems that the original costume made for the movie cost a whopping $150,000! That was back in 1956! (I think that turns out to be somewhere close to $2mil by today's standards. This probably should have been a clue as to just how complicated this would be to build, but, it WAS round. What the heck!

Drawings were produced to as closely as possible to the original proportions of Robby. So the March meeting roles around and it's my turn for new business. "Say guys, I've got these keen drawings for our Collaborative Turning Challenge." "what is it you ask?" "Why it's a robot!" ...BLANK STARES... "A Robot. Made out of a lot of round parts." ...MORE BLANK STARES... "And I've got drawings!?!".

Only since no one else had gone to the trouble of making drawings did this idea for a robot get off the ground. Volunteers were recruited and a meeting time the following Tuesday was set up. This weekly Tuesday night meeting as it turned out, was the high point of our Robby project. It gave the approximately 20 some-odd turners an excuse to get out of the house and meet, discuss, turn, review and shoot the s**t. And on a weekday no less.

So, through March, April, and May, the parts for Robby were slowly but surely taking shape. A mold was turned early on for the plastic bubble. A friend was to fit it into his schedule and vacuum form it for us. Much discussion and time was spent on deciding how much hollowing was necessary to maintain the 40 lb weight limit. Some of the turners wasted no time in finishing their parts and some... well it finally came together in early June, just in time for the June meeting. Well, sort off came together. That is, it wasn't really together. Pieces were just sort of balanced on top of one another. You kind of had to squint your eyes and tilt your head to get the look and feel of the real Robby. Great! And just a week to go before he had to be loaded into the van which would carry our entry to Tacoma.

Now the work was really stepped up. Working weekends and most weeknights a tireless band of faithful procrastinators fabricated, glued, sprayed, wired and willed Robby together.

With Robby finally standing proud, we decided that Robby was a name already taken. Woody was the obvious choice for a new name but just didn't ring right when listed with the club name. Woodrow, yeah, that's the ticket!

So, Woodrow was bundled up into a custom made box and carted off to his Tacoma ride. All in all, he had had 19 creators and upwards of 25 species of wood making him up. Not to mention the odd plastic and brass pieces. And, most of him was turned! I'd say 95%! We were on our way to first place!

We obviously had underestimated the competition though. Missed it by THAT much...

Well, if we get started at the August meeting and we come up with a great idea...

-- Jeff Loughridge