Fish Lure Kinetic Art

My Inspiration for this project came from seeing a copper trout Kinetic wind sculpture, this particular one was in 4/5 sections and suspended from a tree, and the way it mimicked the movement of a fish was really good so with this idea in mind It got me thinking what I could use for a Kinetic art project.

Many years ago I use to do a bit of fishing and I remembered purchasing either 1 or 2 Imitation Roach fishing lures which were made up of segments, so after a bit of rooting about I found the 2 Lures, still in the original packaging, the lures are 100mm in Length so not too big but the main thing is is that they are made up of segments, which is great for this project.

My idea is to use either the 28BYK stepper motors or Servos for fishy movements.

For this project I will be using a Table saw and band saw, I will be wearing the the relevant PPE when operating such equipment.

So with the 2 Lures in hand it's time to make something Kinetic:

2 x Fish Lures

Timber to make a box, I used Walnut floorboard for the main podium.

MG90s Servos

Mini Maestro 6 way Servo Controller

9v Battery and connector

0n'off switch

heat shrink

LED lighting strip c/w Battery box and remote

Soldering iron

Hot Glue

Wood Glue

Frame clamp

13mm Forstner bit

Small round file

Thinking about how I wanted this project to look, They are far too small to suspend from a tree, so I thought about making a rectangular mount out of some sort of wood, I had some walnut veneered floorboards given some time ago, most were pretty warped but for a smallish rectangular box style mount I could probably get away with it, I also had a small off-cut of 4mm Oak sheet, this was also warped but useable.

With these 2 Ingredients I had the makings of a box, with the walnut veneer and plywood floorboards I would need to mitre the 4 walls for it to look right, Mitres are not my strongpoint but it's the only option here.

I laid the 2 lures out end to end and came up with a measurement for length and I had made a mitre sled for the Mickey Mouse table saw some time ago and used this to cut the angles, I had bought a frame clamp set some time ago so after gluing up the edges It was all clamped in place and left for a couple of hours, true to form the joints aren't the best but it will have to do, my joinery skills are very wing and a prayer based:))

After the glue had dried I removed the frame clamp, and sanded everything down, so now time to fit the 4mm Oak sheet as the top of the mount, I chose which way up I wanted the box and Laid this on the Oak sheet and marked the outline with a pencil, this was then cut on the band saw, sanded then glued and clamped in position then put to one side.

It was now time to prepare the fish:)

The first thing to do with the Fish Lures is to remove the treble hooks, there are 2 on each lure, I just used snips to cut through the rings as close to the lure as I could.

There was also a ring at the front of the lure for line attaching, these were also cut off and all the remaining metal bits were filed down.

I had some small diameter brass tubing, I would use this to attach the fish to the Servos, I'm opting for Servos instead of the BYK28 stepper motors on this occasion.

I wanted to have the fish at different heights on the mount so I cut the tube accordingly using a dremel with metal cutting blade, then I filed down the edges.

To drill the holes in the lures I used a 1.5mm drill and very gingerly drilled into the lures, the brass tubing was the pushed in and secured with CA glue, tubing length could be adjusted later at the mounting stage if needed.

That's all there is to do with the lures.

Back to the mount:

I want the 4n0 Servo's to be flush with the top surface of the Oak sheet, the top of the MG90 servo is like a key hole shape, the main diameter is 12mm, I had a 13mm Forstner bit, so I marked out the 4 holes, using the lures and brass rod as a guide, I angled the lures slightly for a hopefully better effect then using the battery drill I drilled the 4no holes, the key hole shape of the servo was achieved with a small round file.

I'm using some MG90s metal geared Servos for this project, they are Chinese and really cheap, and not too noisy at low speeds, I use hot glue to secure these in position, the hot glue I use is not the strongest and if I need to replace a servo at some point then its a fairly easy task

I wanted an On/Off switch on the back of the mount, so a position was marked out and drilled with the same 13mm Forstner bit, the on/off switch I had was a round one @12mm The hole was sanded and the switch secured with hot glue as the wood was too thick for the retaining screw to be fastened up.

This completes the box, a quick rub with Boiled Linseed Oil to finish when the project is complete.

Onto the electrics:

For this project and primarily to have a smooth control of the Servo's I'm using one of the Pololu Mini Maestro Servo Controllers, this particular one is 6 way.

On the Pololu Maestro web page in the resource section there are all the things you need to get the Maestro up and running, you need to download the software which includes the control centre and also the drivers, A USB Cable is needed and it's the same cable as used for an Arduino Nano, Mini B I think.

The Maestro control centre has sliders to control the servo's and a sequence can be recorded then speeds and acceleration of the Servos can be tweaked to suit, finally the script is saved to the Maestro chip, the Maestro's are ideal for Robot Arms etc, Eradicating all that fast jerky servo movement.

A link from the 5v input on the Maestro is soldered onto the 5v Pin on the servo inputs,this is done on the underside, on the surface 5v and Gnd pins I solder and sleeved 2 Cables for a 9v Battery connector.

The Servo cables are held in place with hot glue, The Maestro is secured with sticky back velcro, servo connections are made, The Maestro saved script is pre loaded and good to go.

The 5v input from the Maestro is cut, then soldered onto the switch and re soldered then heat shrink is used to strengthen the joint.

I wanted the added effect of some LED lighting with this project, I could have used single Green LED's and used the Maestro Output to control on and off sequences with the same slider used for the Servo, the choices for the servo pins are Servo/Input or Output, this would be basic green lighting. I wanted better so a lightbulb moment gives me an idea, the cheap LED strip which comes with a battery pack and remote would be so much better, I had a strip with a USB connector off another project, and I had a battery pack and remote, the 2 just plugged into each other nicely.

I secured the LED strip in position not flat to the surface but angled to highlight the fish more, I secured with Hot Glue and held in place until it dried, not pretty but will all be hidden from view with Pebbles later.

I drilled some 5mm holes through the top of the sheet for the LED connector plug and filed it to suit, the connector was then pushed through, the Battery pack was connected, and again using Sticky back velcro, the pack was secured into position.

This concludes the electrical element.

Onto the final finish:

My idea from the start was to make the Kinetic project look like a stream based snippet of a view, where the 2 fish are amongst the pebbles and plant life and just going with the flow so to speak.

There is no shortage of pebbles in my garden, so a few of the nicer looking pebbles were gathered and rinsed then dried.

These were very loosely arranged on the surface and some pebbles strategically placed to hide the LED strip then using the ever useful hot glue to secure them in position, the 2 fishy lures were secured to the screw hole of the Servo's using a very tiny dab of hot glue, there is no stress from the fish movement so this should work ok.

To finish off the effect I actually had to purchase something, that something being some plastic pond plants, these were really really cheap for a pack and height wise they were perfect, they would do a job nicely, some I cut up and placed into position to hide the brass tubing, the others were just hot glued into position on the surface.

The final thing to do was a rub with Boiled Linseed oil, I even brushed the pebbles to give them a watery like lustre.

Time to connect batteries and test, I was very pleasantly surprised by the finished effect, It looks pretty good with nothing switched on, then turning the servos on brings the fish to life, and then a further element is the LED lighting which does a great job of highlighting the fish and plants etc, the remote can be used for lighting effects, solid green or blue, I like the chase effect on the slowest speed, this just goes through the colour palette fading slowly through the colours.

There you have it, Kinetic art made with a floorboard a couple of fish lures, some servo's and some pebbles from the garden and not forgetting the el cheapo pond plants.

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable, I hope it gives you some ideas for a project and many thanks for looking as always.