PoJo

An off the shelf puppet joint, the hex nut is the diameter of a number two pencil eraser.

I stopped at Osh Hardware today and found a much better selection of tiny brass things to fashion the po'man's ball joint. This idea can be found in several key places on our particular trail, LIO's tutorial page (http://www.stopmotionworks.com/index.html) for one, had a scanned article of it I believe. Forgive me for not naming all the fine folks I nabbed this from. The sources on this have blurred, but I thank you for it.

For this configuration I used the tiniest bits I could find, without having to resort to a specialty jewelry supplier:

4/40 brass machine screw nuts
4/40x1/4 brass machine pan head-phillips screws
11/16 brass screw eyes
No. 6 nylon flat washers

I grabbed a size 57 high speed steel drill bit for my hand drill (shown) to pre-drill pilot holes in the dowel bones.

So, the idea is very interesting. It's simple, inexpensive, easy to construct in required sizes. I'd have to work an armature up and see how it works to be sure. I'm thinking of it for perhaps a smaller role, a supporting character in Halfland. It'll be fun to use different techniques and methods throughout the cast.