Popular Woodworking 2009-02 № 174, страница 57

The Redwood Wave. Each handle drives a camshaft that causes the wave to undulate. This sculpture is made of redwood salvaged from a deck.

The Square Wave. Two camshafts work in unison to add together orthogonal waves in a suspended wooden grid.

The Spiral Wave. This piece was inspired by the eddy that Margolin saw peeling off a paddle while rafting down the Green River. The whole mechanisms turns, while a separate electric motor causes a curved rotational wave in the suspended aluminum tubes.

he adds two waves with different wavelengths. The whole thing is powered by two electric motors, and its movement mechanism is controlled by Dacron string.

Margolin, who is based in Emeryville, Calif., uses wood toexplore natural phenomena, from the motion of a caterpillar, to the way the wind blows overa wheat field. His creations use the familiar material of wood in ways that would surprise a typical woodworker, including constructions that employ wood to mimic how a drop of water hits a lake or even to illustrate a complex math equation.

While his work is definitely artistic sculpture, Margolin's work also appeals to the mechanical mind, thanks to his own fascination with gears, cams and pulleys.

The Learning Curve

Margolin has long been fascinated by nature, and the physical phenomena found in it. And

he says he's been "making stuff for as long as he can remember. He received a wrench when he was 8, and he remembers taking apart a seat with it while riding on a ferry. He has always been fascinated by tools, as well as mathematics and geometry, which he calls a "practical, hands-on approach to math."

Though Margolin has never taken formal woodworkingclasses, his father owned woodworking tools, so they were always around the house. His father was an amateur woodworker, so Margolin got to play with his handplanes, a brace and bit and an eggbeater drill. When he was 8, Margolin tried - unsuccessfully - to

JpnWne EXTRAS

To watch videos that show these wood sculptures in motion, go to:

reubenmargplin.com

start a business selling wooden duck puppets he cut out of pine with a jigsaw and painted orange. When he was 16, he made a canoe paddle, and when he was 18, he attempted a canoe (which remains unfinished to this day).

Margolin also learned a lot about building on a larger scale at Lodestar Magnetics, a company that constructs magnetically shielded laboratories. He's worked for Lodestar for about one month per year since he was 18, and he has picked up a lot of skills from the company's craftsmen. At Lodestar, Margolin learned framing, trim work, attention to detail and "simply how to keep working on a large project until it got finished." He says most of his woodworking skills have come from both "messing around," and on these carpentry jobs. And thanks to those skills he also takes on commissions for custom furniture (not to mention the occasional rickshaw) from time to time.

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