A cam is attached to a crankshaft, which rotates. A follower touches the cam and follows it shape, moving up and down. When the handle of the toy is turned, the creates up and down movement and a specific part or the toy, which is attached to the follower, will move up and down. The first thing we did was research the  different types of cams and followers:

Types of followers

Then we were ready to start designing and building. The process wasn’t as easy as it might look and building a cam toy with a smooth up and down movement takes some precise designing and construction.

Look at some  of our completed toys.