The idea to create a diy kit for a wooden robot came about in late 2021. During one of my many Pinterest inspiration searches for wood crafts I came across the wooden robot DIYs. They were adorable but most of them were made with rope and wood. I wanted mine to be 99 percent wood.
So I got me some wood blocks and started experimenting. I finally ended up with following design. One of the things I was looking for was posable arms. Wire was the key.
It wasn’t bad. I used the design for my K & 1 woodworking summer camp 2022.
The campers enjoyed the activity but I wasn’t quite feeling it. It wasn’t until almost a year later when I cam across a bobblehead diy that everything came together. With a few minor other adjustments, bobblehead robot came to be.
At that point, we made bobblehead robots in several classes and it continues to be the most remembered activity by our students. Check out the tutorial below.
Supplies that come in the kit: head cube, body cube, spring neck, wood legs, wood feet, wire and bead arms, gears, flat back crystals, sanding paper, wood glue, pipe cleaner
Additional supplies recommended but not included in the kit: pliers, paint brush, paints, super glue, paper to cover work surface, paper towel strips, sharpie pens, pom poms or any other decorative items you would like to use.
First step is to sand down all the wood pieces. Of note, not all pieces may need to be sanded.
Once done, the next decision is whether you will color block or paint the robot one color. If you scroll down to the bottom of this post, you will see a robot that is red, yellow and blue. If you want yours to look like that, then you will need to follow the next 3 steps. If you want to color your robot one color, then ignore the next 3 steps.
If color blocking, first step is pencil in the areas not to be painted. You do that by inserting the legs into the feet and the body until the legs are level with either body part. Then use the pencil to draw the line on the leg as shown in the first photo.
Repeat on the other leg. When done, it should look like the middle photo.
Finally, tape the ends of the legs on the penciled lines. When done, it will look like the 3rd photo.
After all of that is done, go ahead and paint all of your pieces, making sure not to get any paint in the pre drilled holes.
To paint the arm beads, first put them on a pipe cleaner with a little spacing between them. Thank go ahead and paint the beads. Set all your pieces aside to dry and then you will be using the following steps to assemble your robot.
If you decided to paint your robot one color, you will be following the next four steps.
When looking at the body from the top: you will see three holes, insert glue into the two outer holes, both from the top and the bottom, as in the top left photo above.
Then insert the leg as in the top right photo.
Wipe off any excess glue as in the bottom left photo.
Then finish off by putting glue into the feet drill holes a them inserting the legs into the feet. Position the body on your work surface so that the legs are pointing up. Then gently insert and position the legs so that they are running parallel to the arm holes on the side of the body. Look at the bottom right photo above for reference.
Set aside for about 30 minutes to let the glue set enough for you to work on the next steps.
After about 30 minutes, you can assemble the arms.
First step is to create a loop on one of the wire ends. The loop has two purposes: to hold the beads in place as well as to shape the wire into a hand like shape. Use top left photo for reference.
Then insert 3 beads onto the wire. Carefully insert the wire into the robot body. Use top middle photo as reference.
Finish off by inserting the last 3 beads and creating another loop. Use the top right photo as reference.
Now you can paint your robot. For this robot, I decided to paint mine white and then used sharpies to draw lines on it. After painting it white, I set it aside to dry before drawing in the lines
Once robot has dried, you can use whatever decorative pieces to decorate. For white robot, I only used the flat back crystals for the eyes. To attach the gears or the flat back crystals, I recommend using super glue. If you are using super glue, YOU NEED ADULT HELP.
Once the body is decorated, I attached the neck to the body, also using supper glue. I did not glue the head to the neck, but you can if you want. Doing that will prevent the head from falling off when you bobble it.
Here is my color blocked robot. I like him a lot.
And here are the three robo friends hanging out.