Arm Rods

[Fozzie Bear]

Hiya,

Getting as far away from the velcro around the wrist, wrapping the wire around the wrist stuff.

The Muppets have inside their hands a little thing that attaches to the rod itself. You insert the rod into the wrist and squeeze the hand and insert the rod into the thing.

What on earth is this thing that JHC uses and does?!

Does Angus know? Will he tell??

FOZ

 

[BlueFrackle]

Kevin,

I dont know.


But what i do is make a hand out of Garden Wire (thick Green bendable stuff) then wrap it around the top of the rod.

Its hard to get it into the already stitched up hand, You leave a little gap and squeeze it in.
Kinda like a glove.

Then when you fill it out, you have bendable fingers and a rod that is secure to the hand !


see ya

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I've heard of this little gizmo, I don't believe it's custom made or patented but they are apparently very hush-hush about it. Sounds like a question for Toastcrumbs.....(if he'll tell!)

 

[scarylarrywolf]

I don't know if you know this or not, and I don't know about the top of the rod, but I did make a discovery about the bottom of it. At Lowe's hardware store you can get this stuff called "backer rod" -- it looks like a long foamy worm. If you cut it into sections and jab a hole in them, they make dandy handgrips (or I imagine they would anyway. My disclaimer is I haven't yet tried this, but one of these days I will).

I hope that tides you over until Toastcrumbs gets here...

--"Scary" Larry Wolf

 

[Sam Bald Eagle]

The way I attach The rods to all my puppets hands is I maake a 3ply palm which sit inside the hand through the cener of this you drill a hole large enough for a short small bolt then youhave a washer each side of the ply and the rod (which is spring steel or Music/piano wire with a loop in the end (you need to super heat it so it will bend)) you then attach the wire armeture for the fingers by any way posible and then sew it into the hand (the bolt and washers alow the hand to pivot)



If my explanation is is to confuseing for you email me and Ill send you a diagram

Good luck
Andrew McDougall
P.S. I have been building puppets for 13 years now so any questions I could probably answer.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Thanks, gang!! This is true Muppet Fan Spirit...telling all we know about any given topic.

Well, Mr. Toastcrumbs...if you're out there...HELP!!!

FZ

 

[Beauregard]

One Arm Rod, one Elastic band....

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Thanks, Beau. I don't like that method too much, though, because it's been known to break (the elastic band). Since then, I've gone with the rod wrapped around the wrist once and then connected below.

I'm still wanting to know what Henson does. OH TERRY!! Where art thou?!

FZ

 

[pdbooch]

The methods I've tried is from the "Foam Book," where you put a doll joint into the palm of the hand, but the washer part of the doll joint is only on the the "screw part" a couple of clicks in so that is looks kinda like a dumbbell.

Then I cover the doll joint with a foam pocket, just to give it some stuffing, since actuall polyfill would continue to pull out each time I insert/withdrawl the wire. The wire end that goes into the palm is bent so it will go around the middle part of the dumbbell shapped doll joint.

I'm still getting it down though, because is tricky getting the wire on at just the right spot. I think too that the wire needs to be as straight as possible, becuase any inconsistancy makes it that much tougher. Hope this doesn't sound too confussing

 

[scarylarrywolf]

Oh! Also at Muppetfest Amy van Gilder told me that they don't attach the rod to the inside of the PALM, but to the inside of the INDEX FINGER. The puppet can gesture and point a lot better that way. So however they attach it, it's not in the palm...

--"Scary" Larry Wolf