Atomic Flower

Everybody likes a little rotation. When I was asked to make a flower that incorporated some atomic styling, my initial plan was to go simple. That didn’t work out. Instead, I pressed a gas pump dial onto a string trimmer head, affixed that to an axel from a small aircraft, bolted that to a coffee grinder burr, and clamped that into an industrial pipe coupling. I welded sections from a jeep ring gear on to the axle along with three office chair castor swivels and made leaves from some bicycle brake rotors and etched glass plate. I then formed petals from heavy gauge copper wire with tiny bearings pressed on to simulate electron orbits. After all of that, I matched up a couple of bicycle gears and made a knob from an aluminum door insert and a brass shower-head diffuser; that when turned, spins the flower bloom. The result, 9 Bar of simple atomic motion.