help wanted for mechanical butterfly making

Hi

My name is Mariann and I am a jewellery designer. At present I am designing a pendant consisting of butterfly which can open and close it wings, but I am having real trouble with the technical part of finding a solution for the wings to open and close. I am hoping to find someone who might be able to come up with a clever solution for this. I am quite happy to pay for the service.

Thank you.

Mariann

What material? Are the wings to be opened and closed by moving them manually or by some mechanical method? How big is whole pedant?

I will be making it in metal and the wings will be opened and closed manually. The pendant will be around 3 cm.

If you solder a piece of tube to each side of the body and a matching tube to each wing you can then cut out alternate sections of the tubes to form the knuckles of the hinge. A pin with a head can pass through to complete the pivot and be peined over at the end so it does not fall out.

J

Jasons tube, pin and peen the head system works well but, depending on the layout of the job, it can be difficult getting cleanly on the head of the pin to peen it without bending unless you make up some tooling to support the hinge and hold the pin in place.

An alternative is to lightly squeeze one or more of the tubes on one side of the hinge so the pin is held. With careful judgment the squeeze can be made effectively unnoticeable. Given a nice fit between pin and tube very little squeeze is needed. Its possible that one of the loctite retainers carefully worked into the end tube sections would hold things sufficiently well.

The one time I did something similar I assembled the short sections of tube onto the pin first, squeezed the end ones to hold the pin tight, jigged up the two parts and soldered things together. Naturally a little of the solder worked its way into the wrong place so some careful clean-up was needed.

Clive.

Hi

Thank you so much for your replies, they are very much appreciated. I realised though that I had not explained my design very well, as I meant for the wings just to be able to fold on top of each other rather than being able to flap up and down like a realistic butterfly. I have enclosed some photos of the design, quickly cut out in paper, (the real piece will be made in metal) just to be able to illustrate what I am trying to achieve.

As you hopefully can see from the images I would like the 4 wings to fold on top of each other so when the pedant is closed you can not tell what it is.

When the wings unfold it becomes a butterfly

I have tried to rivet the wings together but the wings tend to fall down when in the open position.

The “butterfly” can either have a body behind it or not depending on what is needed for the mechanics of being able to fold and unfold the wings, as well as to keep them in the open position.

As mentioned, if anyone would like to have a go at making a prototype I am quite happy to pay for the service.

Thanks
Mariann

Please excuse grammar & typos; delightfully dyslexic

So, you don't want the wings to fold like they do on a butterfly, but to move so that they stay in the same plane and pivot around a point (or perhaps two points?) in the wing corner nearest the body in your diagrams.

If so, you could attach a short wire normal to the underside of the top wing (hard solder, eg) and drill holes for the pin in the wings below it and the body. In wear, the weight of the wings would hold them closed (looking rather like a moth). To display the wings you would need to be a bit clever (or just manipulate it with your fingers). It should be possible to hang a short cord or chain below the body, which when pulled resulted in the wings opening. But it is going to need some fiddly wirework etc, if it is to look convincing.

Regards, Tim (the last apprentice at the Guild of handicraft, Chipping Campden, but that was over fifty years ago)

Looks more like they need to pivot like a fan.

You could overcome the tendancy for the butterfly to fold up by introducing a friction layer or some form of spring* to the back of the pivot.

If each wing had a slightly protruding "lump" on the back and the wing behind it a matching dimple on the face then that combined with a tension spring would mean each wing would click into place.

J

* if you search Bellview washer" you will see the typ of spring I am thinking of

I remember being taken there as a schoolboy by someone who needed a repair to a silver salver and being particularly struck by the aprons which connected the craftspeople to their benches; I think I was told that the precious sweepings were carefully collected at the end of the day.

I think Jason meant Belleville washer

Yes I did but luckily if you put Bellview into Google it will give you the correct result and alter the spelling for you

Tiny magnets?

Magnet for gold and silver? Patent it quick!!

This isn't a butterfly, it's a moth. Do the wings have to move in unison? What action causes them to open? If it is a straight pull, what do you pull against?