Recently at the local LUG meeting I demonstrated my now almost complete ladybird.  One of the features that gained quite a lot of interest from the meeting was its fold out wings, so I thought I’d post about it.

The wings unfold and rotate the in a single action.  Each wing is mounted to a small Technic turntable and the drive shaft that controls the flipping movement passes through the turntable.

Outward movement is limited by an axle placed between the two wings, while the flip movement is limited by a 2L half beam connected to the flip drive shaft that stops it from rotating once the wing has flipped over.

Everything is driven by an M motor connected to a worm gear.  A 40 tooth gear and 24 tooth clutch gear are connected to each wing, with the clutch gear stopping the mechanism from destroying itself when the wings are fully deployed or retracted.

The wings are mounted using three 3L pins with stop bushes – two at the front and one at the back.

This is the second version of this build, with the first version having separate rotate and flip mechanisms, which required a lot of calibration and alignment to function correctly, in addition to taking up more space.

 

Instructions on how to build your own folding wings are available from the store.