Ball chain sculpture.

I originally saw Arthur Ganson’s ball chain sculpture, and fell in love.Mine has a very different style, but is based on all of the principles which he developed.You should learn more about Ganson and his amazing machines.Check him out at www.arthurganson.com!

I use a rotary table to fabricate the gear which drives the chain. The work is mounted on the top of the table; when the wheel in the forefront of the picture is turned, the table rotates under the mill.

Here is the gear blank (previously manufactured on the lathe) about to have the gear slots cut.Note the square plate placed on the top of the rotary table. The blank is bolted to the plate, which will be bolted to the table. The holes in the blank are called “construction holes”, and are only needed to construct the part. As such, they are ugly. I later learned how to eliminate the holes as a visual annoyance. Note the groove cut around the blank. This is needed so that the chain links do not interfere with the motion of the chain.

The gear being fabricated.The mill can be seen descending from the upper right part of the picture.

The finished gear, showing how the ball chain fits into the slots cut by the mill. Note how the groove now accepts the rods which link each ball to the next.

The first ball chain sculpture. The top and bottom are made of slate; the middle is wood, with a groove milled out (using the rotary table) as a channel in which the ball chain moves. There is a front plate of plexiglass to retain the ball chain within the groove.

A close-up, showing the gear (with construction holes). The two vertical plexiglass bars, on the sides, were needed because the grooves milled in the wood were not deep enough. Very rough first attempt. But it did work!

One of the pieces of wood milled out for a ball chain sculpture. The piece is lying on a wooden cutting board, which makes it more difficult to see than it should be.

A gear in place in the wood. Still have those darned construction holes.

The second ball chain sculpture. Note the simplified chain path (no linear sections) and the angled tube.The whole idea was to get the chain to pool in the middle of the plate, and not fall off. It didn’t work as well as I had hoped. The plexiglass spacers are gone, but the construction holes remain in the gear.

The third sculpture.Back to a vertical tube, but at least I finally managed to eliminate the construction holes in the gear.