How to make a dancing bird automaton

I came up with this little dancing bird automaton as an inexpensive introduction to automata that I can sell in my on-line store and make available as a do it yourself project. It doesn't have a ton of parts and while I use a lot of expensive machinery in this video because I am making 30 of them at a time, one can be made with pretty common hand tools in about an hour.
I know that a lot of people are hard up for cash right now, so I thought I would share the plans and my method for making these little bird automata. Feel free to make one for yourself or for a friend as a gift (or go ahead and make them to sell) I give you permission. Everyone loves them.
The downloadable plans are on this post on my website spetzlerdesign...
I have been promising to do a "how to" for some time. It's honestly a bit intimidating for me. This is my first attempt at this and I know it's a bit rough, but I had to learn everything about video editing with a voiceover. It was really difficult and took 10+ hours to get here. It's not exactly what I had envisioned, but I made the mistake of running a big job on my CNC the day I was filming, so I ended up having to voice over the entire thing because the original audio was drowned out by the CNC for most of the time. I will not be making that mistake again ;)
If you have any constructive feedback on how I can do this better in the future, let me know in the comments. I am going to try to do more of these as I come up with new designs and I really don't know what is helpful and what isn't, so i am just kind of hoping that I hit all of the important parts.
Have fun!
-Gary
P.S. If you are interested in supporting my work so I can continue to do these kinds of videos (or just want one of these little birds without having to do the work), I have them up for sale in my Etsy shop:
spetzlerdesign...

[@jimhood1202]

Great job. And congratulations on the video it was very well done. You covered everything, the pace was spot on. You'll definitely have persuaded a number of viewers to have a try. I just finished a similar automaton myself. A little more ambitious but it took waaaay more time so not a fair comparison. All the best from Panama

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Thank you! I appreciate the comment. I have been so busy with gearing up for the holidays that I have not had much time or desire to upload new videos lately, but comments like this help motivate me. Do you have a place where you share your work? I'd love to see what you are working on.

[@juliepointer6775]

They are WONDERFUL!

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Thank you!

[@connorriva7676]

Awesome video Gary! I just got my bird in the mail yesterday and it’s so cute. Thank you for sharing the creation process ❤️

[@spetzlerdesigns]

You are so welcome!

[@jacobthompson42]

Great process video, and a cute design! I admire its simplicity too

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Thank you! 😊

[@katiedotson704]

Love this. Wings are optional as well. This would also make a great addition to a windmill or whirligig.

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Definitely! I actually bought a book on whirligigs and have been wanting to try something different. Maybe this would be a good project. Good idea.

[@johnmccullough539]

Awesome project, very nice!!

[@mmoncur]

Thanks for a great video, I'm going to make one! I might use the lathe to make a penguin to live in the nest. :)

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Fantastic! Please share the results. I'd love to see it.

[@DirkOgier]

Thanks for Sharing. It's so cute, so I will give it a try.👍

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Be really careful cutting the little round plug in half. I had one take off spinning on me in the band saw and give me quite the wood burn/cut, so use a clamp or something to hold it if you're going to do something similar. Let me know how it goes. I'd love to see what it looks like when you get it done if you're willing to share an image or something.

[@adycandy517]

Disfrute el proceso, gracias por compartir ❤

[@Kah-Rah-Tay]

These are simply amazing 👏

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Thank you!

[@sandrammontoya]

I love your work, Thank you for sharing

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Thanks for watching!

[@richarddoyle7869]

Looks good! Thanks

Very nice! Thanks for breaking it down into such easily digestible bits!

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Thank you for telling me. I was worried it was too much.

[@johnmitchelljr]

Thank you, well done.

[@MichaelBloomquist-p4b]

Fantastic video!! Thank you!

[@raviadivarekar9246]

beautiful

[@sidtaylor1161]

Excellent video, thank you for sharing

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Thank you

[@liveoak4124]

Thank you. I’ve subscribed and I’ll be making one for my niece

[@spetzlerdesigns]

Fantastic! If you are willing, share it with me when you're done. I'd love to see it.

[@BillJohel]

Love this stuff! Very creative Gary! Thanks in advance from my Grandkids :) Any chance you might share plans for some of your other creations?

[@spetzlerdesigns]

I'm planning on doing a lot more of these. It just takes me a really long time to make & edit them for some reason, so I have to save up the energy to do it. I still have 4 more in the robot series to finish and then we'll see how motivated I am. Thanks for the nice comment!

[@TonyBoy22657]

Nice designs Mr. Spetzler. Question: What cnc and software do you use?

[@spetzlerdesigns]

I have a NextWave Shark HD510 CNC and I just upgraded from VCarve Pro to Aspire so I could make use of my 4th axis on the CNC. I don't know how much the brand of CNC matters, but I really appreciate the software so far. I hope that helps.

[@ΟΠαππούλης]

1000....!!!!!!!!!!!