I originally built this interesting model "Fascinating Rods" in 2006 and it is always a big attraction whenever I have displayed it people are always fascinated as to how the rods do not hit each other. It was originally hand operated as the picture above, I then motorized it , converted back to hand operation then in 2014 I decided it was rather good just running all day at exhibitions so decided to put the motor back as you see it now.

I make no claims to the design of the model, I just built it. My model is closely based on one built by Graham Jost of Melbourne in Australia who also made the rods for me. The original idea of the model was not Graham's either. He says,

"First up, I saw one made of plastic in a two-dollar shop and thought that it would make an appealing Meccano model. But I couldn't’t work out how to achieve those 135 degree bends – the 90 degree ones were fine using couplings, but the others were a problem. So was the sheer bulk of such a built-up rod construction – and most untidy! then I saw one built in a UK Meccano Club Newsletter using bent rods. Of course – just bend the rods! As I had/have plenty of 4 mm rods on hand, rod supply was no bother – apart from getting them all pretty much the same, which was not easy."

The model has nine vertical rods in constant mesh using nine 1" Multi Purpose gears driven by a 1.5" contrate gear and pinion connected to a Meccano PDU motor.

Of course nothing beats seeing it in action if you click on the link below you can see this on YouTube.

Page created January 14 2015 modified January 19 2015