Playing around and around and around

When I was a kid, I did like a roundabout. Maybe it was the sensation of speed, maybe because it didn't matter if there was a group of kids or just yourself. Since a roundabout should be the easiest play equipment to animate I thought I would add one, but the Gaugemaster kit didn't include one. There was a spinning thing kids can hang from, but I wanted a traditional ground-level roundabout. This was built from scrap parts and my imagination. 

The basis is a large gear with the teeth cut off, this was attached to a shaft, put in the Dremel, and while spinning a file applied gently to ensure the edge was round and smooth. I then drilled small holes near the edge 90 degrees apart.

A length of tube was opened out to slide over the projecting shaft, and at the top four notches cut. Four handrails were added upright from the holes and across into the centre-post notches (two are L-shape and one is an inverted U-shape running right across). The wire was later blackened. 

The centre post was topped with a plastic disc cut from a leather punch. I also added a seat onto the gear boss, this would have been easier before fitting the handrails! 20 thou plastic was cut to the circular shape and the centre punched out, then cut into two semi-circular pieces which were glued around the centre-post sitting on the boss. I also raised the ground around the roundabout with a piece of 40 thou plastic to disguise the depth of the roundabout. 

The roundabout is simply motorised with it's own motor/gearbox, mounted on a couple of blocks of wood, the lower is a spacer for the motor output drive, the upper has a 2mm hole through which the shaft passes to keep it vertical.

The animated playground equipment fitted to the sub-base in place on the layout, the motors and mechanism are hidden within the layout. The foam-core board construction of the layout means there is no access to the motors and mechanism from below, so the sub-base needs to remain removeable in case of maintenance. 

The animation may be a little jerky but it works surprisingly well, although the motors are really quite noisy.