Looks a Little Spacey, Doesn't It?

We returned to Cary, NC where Russ's sculpture was installed earlier this spring to take some photos now that there are leaves on the trees. While there Russ did a little sculpture maintenance.

K-Man Dedication

Weather for the dedication was wonderful and loads of little and big kids showed up for the ribbon cutting.

Final Details

The entire gear box is enclosed with a strong and clear sheets of plastic called lexan.

This allows kids to see the inner workings of the sculpture but prevents them from touching any of the moving parts.

New and Improved

The new and improved Big Gear awaits its destiny.

Getting ready to install the Big Gear. This is what makes K-Man's head turn and his arms and legs swing.

Leveling the gears and adjusting the timing and action took a good part of the day. These gears had to be altered because of K-Man's position on the new foundation.

Much later today, Russ proudly displays the new and improved pole for the handle. Hint: the new one is on the left.

Still silent, K-Man looms overhead while the installation continues. The baseball game across the street ended long ago, the fireworks exploded, and the sport fans straggled home. But now K-Man has night lights.

Take that Darth Vader

Here's the cover of today's Lifestyle section. K-Man k-o'd Darth Vader (Revenge of the Sith) for the cover page. The funny thing is the photo the newspaper used has the black Hammons Tower in the background. What's funny is people around here call that the Darth Vader Tower. How's that for synchronicity.

K-Man Installation Today

Preparing the foundation to set K-Man's gear box on. It looks like it's going to be nice day in Jordan Valley Park.

There's quite a crew here ready to help with every facet of the installation. The gear box in now in place and level.

As a crane lifts the body of K-Man down into position, the skies darken and the wind picks up, but at least it's not raining.

The support and rotating poles have to line up and be bolted into place.

These legs are made for walking... attaching the legs and releasing the supporting straps are the last jobs of the day. And the sun peeks out of the clouds again. Get out the sun-screen.

It Has a Name...

More work on the back lot to line up new connections for the new support pole. We've had mostly nice weather except for the occasional big gusts of wind that can make lining up the connections difficult. The studio crane has a name... it's called "The Beast."

Burn Baby Burn

We're burning the midnight oil here at RuBert Studios.

With the discovery of a bearing that's gone bad due since it was never oiled by the previous owners, Russ realizes that K-Man's bottom has to be cut off. After opening him up, the bearing was replaced.

K-Man may get bit of hot seat during the process. The bottom has to be welded back on, the welds cleaned up, and the bottom and sides re-polished.

After a few welding gymnastics, he should be good as new. Maybe better.

K-Man has a Spine Alignment

Now that the new pole has been welded, it's time to check the placement for new holes in the base that have to be drilled.

It took both the old Stinger crane and the forklift on the back lot to make the necessary adjustments and measurements.

A New Spine

The new support pole for Kinetic Man finally arrives and polishing begins. Since K-Man was orginally designed for temporary two- or three-day installations at the Walt Disney Children's Arts Festivals, Russ has been making improvements for the permanent installation. The new pole he's ordered has much thicker walls than the original.

Richard starts polishing the long pole. And Russ sliced off a couple of bracelets for me. He hasn't put a pattern on them yet, but I'm hoping...

Whew, this hand-modeling is hard work. Shouldn't I be getting paid for this?

Reworking the Gears

Since the new concrete foundation for K-Man will be quite different from the grassy-lawn-style installtion used for the Walt Disney Children's Arts Festivals, Russ will have to re-design the entire gear system.

The gears that make it easy for kids to make K-Man walk are all custom engineered and hand-crafted out of sheet metal and solid rods. It's already apparent that the gear teeth will have to be lengthened to adjust for the new handle position.