I am soooo syced that you used my method and adapted it!  You made my day.

I'm glad you made those videos, and linked me to them in this thread! I wouldn't have thought of that method on my own, and a ball joint is really what's needed here. I tried a couple of other methods, but none really worked that well. A wood man would have worked here, but the local hobby store didn't have them and I didn't want to order them online without seeing some in person first. Although, for the wire for the rest of the body to be mounted to the wood man would probably require drilling a hole or two in it, which I didn't want to do. So this worked out quite well.

I've made a lot of progress! I posted a picture in my gallery here, but there's a more detailed description on my DeviantArt page: http://snowfox102.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-puppet-WIP-170320236

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it, especially since I had to figure out a lot of things pretty much on my own. The only thing still bothering me is how much effort it takes to turn the head. The cable just tries to twist up more or untwist, so it takes several revolutions to make the head move. I'm wondering if the Sullivan brand of pushrods perform better in that regard. That would explain why so many different puppet makers have used them! I didn't use one because the local hobby store only had the semi-flex type, and ordering one online would add shipping charges on top of what's already a more expensive part. The one I used is made by Du-Bro.

By the way, I think I forgot to mention this: Originally I said I was going to make a bat-like creature. I still want to, but the design would be a bit more complicated for me to make the mech for, and I'd need to develop a good pattern for the fabric, whereas with the dragon I already had a pattern I could adapt, and the mech wouldn't be any more difficult than usual. So I just went with the dragon because it was easier to learn on.

Were I to make shoulder puppets it would be tempting to put an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other.

Fettig shows amazing head mobility with a 'wobble' mechanism in a U-tube video. You can see it at...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXfLuBxuJpw

Thanks Rocky, but I've seen that video already. Also rod puppets only share a few mechanical similarities with cable puppets, as I learned when making mine. Still good info to know though, I think it helps to know about as many methods as possible.

I designed a new component to the head mechanism that I thought I'd share, it might help someone making one of these.



It's kind of hard to see, but what I did was make three disks from Apoxie Sculpt, with holes through them and a flatish side. There's a wire going through them, and two of them are glued to the head with JB Weld. They're glued to the wire too, since they don't need to move. The middle disk rotates freely, and has the cable JB Welded to a small hole in it. I covered the side disks and an exposed bit of the paper mache joint with Apoxie Sculpt to help protect it from moisture and reinforce the glue. (JB Weld is much stronger than paper mache) The blue bit of fabric over the top is a piece of felt hot glued to the outer disks to hold them in place while the JB Weld cured. It doesn't get in the way of anything and it would have been too much trouble to remove so I just left it.

This mechanism provides the necessary joint at the cable connection to allow maximum up and down movement, but the rigid nature of the Apoxie Sculpt prevents the parts from flexing when the cable twists, so you still get good side to side motion. Next time I think I'll use a little metal rod from a spring clip in place of the wire, so there's no risk of the wire bending and messing up the mechanism.

So this is your hinge, right?  I was not sure as I read the info but then once I looked at the image full size I kind of got it. I am still not real sure how you are getting a side to side movement out of this.  I understand the up and down but am not seeing the transfer of energy and how it works when you "twist" the cable.  Maybe I am over analyzing things.... I have been know to do that.

Well, the cable carries a lot of energy when twisted, so it isn't hard to transfer the motion to the head. The head is mounted on a ball joint, so it moves very easily. It's hard to imagine how it works because the cable is offset from the center, so you don't expect it to turn the head...but it does! I can try to get a video of it if that would help. It depends on whether I have batteries for the camera or not, hehe.

I think I mentioned it somewhere before, I think it was my other thread...The hinge doesn't actually move the head itself. What it does is keep the cable from getting "stuck". If the cable is attached directly to the head, you won't get much up and down movement because the cable has to bend as the head moves. If there's a hinge there, then the cable doesn't have to bend to move with the head, and you get a greater range of motion. I don't really know how to explain it.

You are correct, it is the offset that baffles me.   I am sure it works but I just can't wrap my mind around it.