How does a wind-up toy work?

Answer 1

I believe they use some type of spring which is compressed as the handle turns. Naturally, when you let go the spring try's to return to its original position. However, I'm not sure exactly how its done, because most wind up toys make some sort of noise, I would have to take one apart and see what devices are used.

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Part-way there..... but be VERY careful if you dismantle anything driven by clockwork because the driving-spring is very powerful and if it is still partly wound up but you release it suddenly by not knowing what you are doing with it, it can bite, potentially seriously such as an eye injury. Clockmakers use special tools and wear eye-protection to deal with these things.

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The mechanism is called a Clockwork Motor, because it uses a roughly similar motion to a spring-driven clock. The spring is very long strip of spring-steel wound into a coil further tightened by the winding-key. When the toy is released, the spring unwinds steadily, driving the toy along or around through a train of intervening gears. There may be some form of governor, perhaps just a "fly" (a small fan), to control the rate.

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The original "wind-up" gramophones, now antiques, use a high-quality version of the clockwork motor fitted with a sensitive governor to keep the playing speed constant within fine limits. Music-boxes have a compact little clockwork motor to rotate the pin-barrel against the spring-steel comb that it plucks to produce the notes. You can now buy clockwork radios - invented I think by James Dyson - in which the motor drives a small dynamo.

Answer 2

There is a cam mechanism. You would turn a handle and a cam (egg cam pear cam circular cam offset cam) would turn . If the cam was a circular one the follower would spin if a pear it would spin slightly but go up and down smoothly if an egg then it would turn slightly and drop offset cam it would spin this would cause the model on top to move in whichever way

Answer 3

Like clockwork, a spring is wound tighter and tighter. When it is released the energy allows the toy's wheels to turn, or arms to move.

Answer 4

well, if its a simple wooden toy, then you pull or push it, but if its mechanical, then there would be an on and off button or switch!

Answer 5

how do you fix a sprung wind up toy