automatic door for a illusion

[xmagicmanx]

Hi I'm a magician and I'm building a new illusion. Its a squarebox framefor a average size human head. The box has doors on four sides.


I want to make the four doors open and close by a push of a button. Can anyone help me out? Does anyone have any ideas on what to use? Or is there any mechanism that could make this happen??


I saw a simillar illusion in Europe a few years ago and it had the automatic push of a button open/close doors.


My idea was to have themechanisminside the frame and one door would be connected to theother threedoors , but I have no idea on how to make it open/close on a push of a button.


Here is a quick sketch I made of the illusion so it would be easier to understend :


http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i314/xmagicmanx/box.jpg


Anyone ??any ideas??





Thank you,


-magicman-

 

[Vikesfan]

Do the doors all open at the same time?
how fast do they need to open and close?

 

[xmagicmanx]

yes, they all open at the same time.


they open and close at a medium speed. Not too fast, but also not too slow.

 

[bds3]

Do you have any air or power avalable, or is this just purely a mechanically actuated sequence? It looks like you need it to be repeatable (e.g. not a one time spring/latch mechanism); is that true?

 

[xmagicmanx]

no, I dont have any air or power avalable.....


I was thinking on maybe using batteries....


yes, it has to be repeatable....it has to open and then close.....

 

[Vikesfan]

is this going to be something you pick up and move around or is it mounted on a table of some kind?

 

[xmagicmanx]

yes its a boxyou pick up and move around...


I found this video in my collection, its the exact thing:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60jqQNQE0WM


the man in the chair pushes a button and it opens, pushes again and it closes....


this is my 2nd week thinking about this....I'm going crazyy

 

[bds3]

Right now I'm thinking of a small (2"x2"x3") 12V DC motor that would drive a chain (probably acetal to keep it light weight and quite) which runs in the frame of the box. With a 3 way (spring to center) selector switch you can drive it forward or reverse or neutral. How nice you want it depends a bit on how much you want to spend. With just the motor, chain, and switchyou are at about $115. We could add limit switches, speed controler (or gearbox). Anyway, that would be my first shot at this thing.