My first attempt at arm rods wasn’t satisfactory.   I had sewn a opening into the wrist where I could insert a wooden dowel.   I found that the dowl would slide out when in use.    At a Fellowship of Christian Puppeteers meeting, I had learned about using an eye bolt in the wrist to attach the arm rods.

I tested the modifications to the wrist on the Leon puppet.  Hunter and Norra will be modified next.

The 3/16th inch by 2 inch long eye bolt was attached to a piece of rigid leather.  The leather is used to better hold the bolt it in place in the wrist.  The eyebolt was attached to the leather with hot glue.

Eye bolt attached to leather

I cut the seams in the wrist of Leon and inserted the eyebolt into the wrist.

Inserting bolt into wrist

The bolt was positioned towards the hand.  The wrists were then sewn up around the bolt to help hold the bolt in place.

Bolt ready for sewing

Once the wrists were modified with the eye bolt, the arm rods were made out of a 5/8th inch dowel, a 3/16th steel rod, and a #10-24 x 3/4 inch Rod Coupling nut.

The 3/16th inch steel rod was cut to 14 1/2 inch long.  One end of the rod was threaded with a 3/16th inch, 24 threads per inch die.

The handle was made from the 5/8th inch dowel.  The dowel was cut to 5 1/2 inches long.   A 3/16 inch hole was drilled into the dowel 1/2 an inch deep.  The plain end of the rod was glued into the handle with hot glue.

The rod coupling nut was then threaded onto the other end of the rod.

Connecting Bolt on Rod

The arm rod was then painted with black spray paint.

Finish arm rod

The coupling nut is used to connect the arm rod to the eye bolt that protrudes from the wrist of the puppet.

Arm rod attached to wrist

I still need to do some work with the puppet to make sure that the overall weight of the rods will function effectively.

Tags: hot glue, puppet, sewing