I made a 1:12 scale working tablefan with tiny working switch!

hi everyone, I'm so happy to say I got the tiny switch to work!!! So finally a succesful fan-tastic challenge, yay!

of course you have to see a miniature like this in action so I made a video of it: enjoy!

don't ask me how I did it though. A while ago (after lots of trying, exploring unused parts of my brain and trying some more) I had reluctantly
started to admit the space behind the switch was just way too small to work in. As well as I couldn't get the switch itself to not turn around while flipping it, making it impossible to connect again once it came out of the off-position. It also wasn't easy to come up with something - and even less so to execute - to keep the switch in the on/off position. So when I pretty much exhausted my inner ideadatabase I figured maybe I should just make it work without it. Still a working miniature and still fun right? Fortunately one of my 'worst' traits is not being able to give up 😉!

my determination was really tested a while later as you may have read about in my last post 'Murphy's law and a serious test in patience'. That wasn't all Murphy had in store for me though, he continued happily for a bit after my last post. And later I even almost ruined it altogether. But in the very end I was able to fix all of it and got the result I wanted!

like I mentioned once before I used a very small engine. It's 1cm/25/64 inch x 0,5cm/13/64 inch, just small enough for it to be to scale for this fan. For as far as I know it's the smallest kind commercially available.

and the working switch? Ha, crazy thought that was and as you can imagine quite the challenge all on it's own. The theory behind it was easy to come up with, to apply that in the small space behind the switch quite the opposite. Plus the additional challenges I mentioned in the beginning of this post. But..... nailed it, yay! The switch itself is a piece of a sewingpin I filed the right shape and wrapped a piece of superthin black electrical wire around it.

I had a couple of exciting moments, like after I almost glued the tiny rotating part of the engine stuck, three sperate times. First two with superglue because I really needed to glue stuff crazy close to that rotating part and a small part around it, almost touching it. Another time for similar reasons. And although I'm a bit of a superglue-nut, I really needed superglue both times, trust me ;).

the third glue-incident happened after Murphy thought it would be fun to throw his law in the mix. It was right before I would really finish it for the last time (at least I hoped it would finally be the last time) and only needed to glue the frame back on. Because after the fall, it had eventually come off when I tried to fix all the bend parts.

 

I would have accidentally glued the rotating enginepart completely stuck though for some stupid reason if it hadn't been for the Universe stepping in. Long story. Short version is something seemed to go very wrong in kind of an unbelievable way - again - but was actually what made me able to see just in time I had unknowingly almost ruined the whole thing and would have had to start all over again, new engine, new housing for that etc..

and there's more fun stuff like that ;). It all worked out in the end, but it probably gave me an extra grey hair or two(hundred), haha!

a few of the stages..

so all in all making this little piece-of-joy came with many expected and a number of unforseen challenges. Some of what I love about this hobby the most is the fiddling & problemsolving, but I have to admit it was a bit much with this fan. But hey, it is what makes it even more fulfulling now it's finished and I'm só proud!

candlestickholder by Jokra, blueish bowl by Alex Meiklejohn, real very small geode by Mother Nature ;) (from Stuart Dollhouse), white bowl by Ana Ankinaki, fruit by Dream Raven Designs, the rest is once made by me

glasses are by Itsy Bitsy, hamburger by Tristatin (Etsy), plate and vase by Elisabeth Causeret, the chair a kit from Arjen Spinhoven, de rest is once made by me (the flowers are dried ones)

before I go I'd like to thank a very dear & special friend of mine for the very generous birthdaygift of a luxury led-illuminated-tableclamploupe ànd watchmakers glasses (they're basically a microscope on your nose) he surprised me with. Which happened to be in the process of making this fan. He only knew me for 4 weeks at the time and didn't even know it's what I wanted (and for quite a long time even), I never mentioned it :D. It's just what he thought I could really use for making miniatures. I was over the moon with both of them as it was, but they actually turned out to be invaluable already. So thank you so SO much again for that, I love you!

ps: for anyone who's waiting for my butterflypalm-tutorial I ask you for some (more) patience. As always I had and have good reason to abandon that - and everything else I haven't finished yet ;) - for a while to focus on the rustic-vintage-industrial-scene, this fan and what I'll do next