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Half-dude — Ernie's Compactor Study
Published: 2011-08-02 00:56:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 7499; Favourites: 42; Downloads: 65
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Description
I can hear the mixture of voices in the room on this one. One half, the people liking my newest stuff, I hear gitty excitement. My other watchers I can hear an annoyed groan.. probably thinking how I could have used the effort taken to do this to do another cut-away of one of the other Irken Armada Ships. To those people I say sorry, I almost didn't draw this because I knew it'd only appeal to a few select people if any. But then I thought about what so many of you keep telling me, "draw what YOU wanna draw only." So I went ahead and did this..Honestly, I think since I was a little kid I always wondered how this thing operated..ever since I caught that brief 2 second glimpse of the moving parts and mechanics behind the crusher during the movie. However not till the advent of youtube these days was I able to go back and LOOK at those mechanics closer and see what was going on. I'm happy to say, whoever designed the crusher for the movie did it with practicality in mind and didn't just draw a bunch of moving gears that look cool. I tip my non-existent hat to you fine sir..
Essentially, and quite uniquely, the compactor works on clock-work mechanics, with gears and levers. I'm not sure weather that's ingenious or stupid.. it totally rules out having any hydraulics of any kind involved, depending more on sheer weight and force mostly. One thing I would like to point out, it was something I used to think as a kid so I figure many others would to. The large plume of ozone killing exhaust smoke coming out of the compactor IS'NT being expelled from the piston tube at the top of the device. But rather from a small smoke-stack in the power-plant area behind it. Since the compactor is almost always seen from the front however, it looks like it's coming from the top.
The biggest asset to doing this study here, like I mentioned before, was a short 2-3 second view of the background mechanics seen here: [link] Essentially the large crushing block, which has a connecting rod extending out the top, is repeatedly lifted by a > shaped lever system. The movement is controlled by a spinning windmill-shaped toothed cylinder which lifts and drops the block at regular intervals (4 compactions per revolution). This would mean that the actual crushing would have to rely entirely on the simple weight of the crushing block and the force of it being dropped.
**MOVIE SPOILER**
This is all well and good, but then I realized an inconsistency (one of many in the movie.. like the fact that the height of the compactor constantly changes as well as the layout of the conveyer belt). With this mechanic, as soon as the crushing block reached the top of it's lifting cycle and started down.. it would be going at free-fall speed with no mechanical intervention. This completely contradicts the end climax of the movie where the Toaster, by jamming the gears, causes the crushing block to staggeringly slow and stop just inches from crushing the Master's hand. [link]
This was probably just an oversight by the artists, also not counting on obsessives like me to think about it so hard.
SO with my brain-meats I managed to introduce a hidden mechanical component which fixes this inconsistency as well as make the device much more realistic in it's working.. IMO.This was done, as seen above, by creating a hollow area inside the crushing block, along with side-slits to allow movement. I introduced a gear-driven piston system mimicking the exact same mechanics as a piston in a combustion engine. This internal arm would supply downward pull when compacting rather then just using momentum which seems much more realistic. Cosmetically it also gives the gears along the sides of the device a purpose other then driving the conveyor belts.
For those in deep need of education who don't understand how a piston works.. take a look at this animation: [link]
So bringing it back to the issue of the shut down of the compactor climax. Those gears, with this system, not only drive the conveyer belts but the secondary drive of the whole compactor. I should point out that the primary and secondary drive mechanisms (the gear and lever system) are dependent on each-other and they're timed like clockwork (much like a real engine) so if one fails the other will too.
This description is getting long so I'll try and wrap this up. By focusing on these fine details I failed to leave room to explain the most important question. How does a device that flattens things into pancakes turn them into cubes? Well by design I see no room for any kind of secondary crushing device in the under parts of the compactor. So sadly, realistic or not, the only idea I have to go on is that the base of the compactor has a grate system.. similar to a tomato deicer. [link] The sheer force of the crushing motion not only flattens the vehicle but forces it through cubed channels at the bottom, reducing it into a collection of crushed metal cubes. There must be a channeling system that allows one cube out at a time as that's what's seen during the movie..with er.... 6.6; .. Pinky's remains.
Lastly are the parts that look like eyes on the compactor. Originally in my first idea for this, they were to be joint locations for an internal hydraulic system. But now I think they serve a better function. They're air-channels that allow the flow of air in and out of the top of the crushing block cylinder.. this prevents a vacuum from forming inside the cylinder as the block raises and lowers inside. This is the ONLY thing I can suggest perhaps leads to the 'hissst'ing of steam sound that's heard while the device is operational. It could be bursts of air caused by a controlled release valve in these channels. Perhaps during the power stroke (crushing stroke) the pressurized trap air at the top of the cyclinder is used to assist in creating pounds of pressure in the crushing action. Then when raising back up the air is released.
Anyway, that's all.. I'm done rambling. I hope you enjoy this.
Ernie's Disposal, compactor (c) TBLT
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Comments: 90
Thank you!
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I just took another look at the video. I see what appears to be a small rectangular box mounted right under the "death zone" of the compactor, where the scrap is crushed. Directly below that box is the exit hole from which the cubes fall out of. That little box is a something that probably turns the crushed metal into a cube. How that happens still, I have no clue.
As silly as it sounds, my only idea would be that the box consists of a sheet of metal with a square hole in the middle. The sheer force of the crushing turns most of the scrap into dust literally, with the remaining scrap forced into the cube-mold, creating the cube which then falls out from below by gravity.
......that made no damn sense. I fail at figuring this crap out. Lol.
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Exactly.. there IS a chute there.. but there's no room around or outside of it to hold any kind of machinery.. so I think it's just that.. a chute. If there were crushing walls inside there'd have to be something outside to hold the crushing mechanisms. I guess my theory with the dicer idea is that inside that chute holds the dicing grille.
OMG how wasteful! XD Not to mention the fact that most of those cars were classic collector cars that shouldn't have been scrapped to begin with. Even if they weren't, reselling the PARTS is much more practical then turning them into what I can only imagine are smelting cubes. BUT.. then again I guess I have to remember that Ernie's obvious is a garbage dump too.. soo..
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Ernie's disposal is probably a scrapyard and general dump combo or something. Though it's made up mostly of metal scrap and old cars. Since BLT is from 1987, would it be wrong of me to think of people back then not caring so much about old cars as people do in this era? At least the fictional human population in BLT seem to think that way, since we have the whole "Worthless" song and stuff.
Oh man. I think too deeply about crap like this sometimes. Guess I just need a beer and enjoy the show.
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Please don't beat yourself up over thinking about this stuff hard. There's NOTHING wrong with over-analyzing.. you should be proud to be doing it.. you're doing something most others haven't.. it's your own enlightenment in a way. You're searching for answers people overlook.
But yeah, you're right, the place seems to be a combination. Not just a scrap yard but a dump as well. It's emphasized more as a garbage dump more in the beginning with the garage truck picking up dumpsters, as well as piles in the place obtaining trash-bags and stuff. But then during and after the Worthless song the piles seem to turn entirely into cars.. hmmm : /
Could be, but to be honest.. not everyone values cars that much.. you really gotta be interested in them in particular to value the classics. If you do a Google image search for 'car junkyard' about every car you see is between 1940s-1980s... makes sense since they're the last generation of cars.. eventually the cars you see today will be added to that list...especially with this big movement to alternate fuel.
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Excellent. You really analyzed this thing! I wonder if there was ever a "BLT Bible," meaning a technical manual full of sketches and diagrams for all the visual components of the movie (characters, machines, etc.) Other cartoons and movies have made use of them to ensure the final product is consistent. If so, this could be a page taken directly from it.
The tomato dicer idea makes sense considering the size of the cubes, but I'm not sure if there's any real crushers that do that. It would almost be a crusher-shredder combo if that was the final result. All the junkyard cars I've seen ended up as either cubes, partially flattened or shredded into metal flakes. But considering the overall design of the compactor, the dicer/cuber element fits in well.
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Well sure, I mean.. I'm sure they had to have a bulky file full of character concepts.. location concepts.. stuff like that. God if only they released all that in a book or something, I'd buy it! Oo Though constancy is not BLT's strong point when it comes to non-vital things. Like I mentioned.. the conveyor belt changes constantly in it's layout to the convenience of the plot. XD
I'm not really HAPPY with the dicer idea. Personally I think it'd be nearly impossible to force a car through something like that.. I kinda toyed with the idea that maybe it was constantly heated to white-hot.. to help the cars go through it.. but that seems pretty weird. But yeah the ONLY other way that crusher could make those cubes is if there was a second pair of crushing walls directly below crushing horizontally.. but there's just no room in the design for that! Though the soundfx of the crusher kinda suggests a second crusher since the sound is "thud clank sssssst.. thud clank sssst"
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I'm glad you got a good comment from SpittleSticks, because I am so clueless about machinery and such, I'm not sure if I can bulk out this comment as much as I want to XD
BUT I do have a comment on how you described everything. I know nothing about machinery but nearly everything you said made sense.
I think it's amazing how much fans can look into stuff like this 8O Especially when you get the fans like you that draw it all out.
On a partially unrelated side note, I like when a series makes everything realistic and practical with zero or nearly zero plot holes. A good example is Harry Potter. A bad example is the Maximum Ride series |:U
But that's not to say everything needs to be explained. Such as, The Force from StarWars that was infamously described as a bacteria thing.
As for the channeling system for the cubes and stuff, I actually don't believe more than one cube comes from a single car. I didn't see any others cars pop out more than one, especially at the rate Pinky's did.
I think that scene after Pinky, even though there weren't any crushing noises, all the cubes were there just as a montage of sorts.
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Well thank you, yeah Spittlesticks made a pretty awesome comment, of course I was gity waiting for yours. X3 So far Spittle and you are the only ones who haven't given me a hard time about this drawing. People seem to think this is overly obsessive or something.. though they sure didn't mind when I over-analyzed things for the Irkens.. exactly why I was hesitant to draw this at all. -_- It's delightful how predictable people are.
I'm glad everything I said made sense.. I was afraid some people would get lost..heh..
Well actually.. I always did find 'the master still bringing the toaster home' thing a plot hole. Like how did he find the toaster? Did the toaster dislodge himself from the gears and fall to the ground? Wouldn't be dead until the Master repaired him? Why didn't the Magnet just pick them back up again after the Master went to leave? Or was the magnet just so emotionally broken that he couldn't at that point? XD ANYWAY, I agree.. they shouldn't have explained the force.. some things ARE best left a mystery.
Well to he honest, the only other cube we see during the song is the Blue car.. all the others the song cuts away from. The camera doesn't really hold on the blue cars cube long enough to say weather any more came down or not.. given the delay time in-between Pinky's first and second cube as reference. Just seems kind of impossible that a car could be compressed into a cube THAT small. But we'll leave it up to individual speculation.
I will say, when I was little seeing all those cubes kinda creeped me out. Because I swear some of them were the color of the main characters.. like that they'd been squished off-screen. Oo;
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Ooooh yes, tell me about it D|
I never minded the 'over analyzing', Invader Zim and BLT. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make sense of everything, and if you can't, MAKING make sense.
Personally, I think your Irken 'blueprints' were an absolute GEM for artists who wanted to draw or write Irken fanart/fiction.
I have that same fear too, haha.
I was wondering that too... I thought maybe the Master had gone to Ernie's Disposal, saw his stuff, and was trying to get them when he ended up on the conveyor. Meaning that after he was saved, he specifically went in search for the toaster. (Man, I've really got to rewatch this movie.)
Perhaps in story telling, BLT isn't so shiny, but it's a gem in theme and essence.
Huh... yeah, you're right.
For a while I wondered if the crusher block had sharpened slots that cut the metal and such, then drained them through a funnel onto the second conveyer. But then I watched the video, and realized that nope, the block was completely flat |D Damn.
Oh man, you're right Oo;; That woulda scared me too if I'd noticed that when I was little.
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Nothing wrong with being a think-tank.. >.>;
aww thanks..
I was always kind of tense after the climax when the Master just 'siigh!'ed and left his hand laying under the GIANT FUCKING CRUSHER.. I was like 'get your freaking hand out of there!' Because seriously.. the gears are only jammed.. that engine back there is still trying to keep it going. If those gears slipped one inch bye bye hand.
I guess my reasoning was that as the Master was climbing down off the conveyor belt (however he managed that) the Toaster dislodged himself and clanked to the ground getting the his attention. But wouldn't the toaster be dead? Having been all crushed up? Maybe not.. I always kinda wondered if the Master knew at the end that the Toaster saved him.. I'm guessing probably not.
Herbal Essence.. X3
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As long as you don't hurt yourself obsessing over a thought XD
Did you know that when I was little, I would rush through my work so I could just lay my head down and think? 
You almost inspired me to do an IZ comic, haha. But like almost everything I started or wanted to do back then, I never went through with it
I assumed he COULDN'T move right away because of the pipe thing on his hand?
I guessed that as long as an item is salvageable, it's still 'alive'. That, or it's dead until reconstructed.
I don't think the Master ever knew, though I kind of wish he did. Actually, a good alternative ending to the BLT movie would be the Master becoming aware (even if slightly) of the objects' lives and treating them with more respect and importance.
Isn't that some lady soap? XD I think I used to use that type back when I had highlights.
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*obsessively, while reading your tell that story, I think about Violet doing that, then laying her back against Pinky's bumper to think while Pinky looks down at her amused as hell. XD
god I hate when I do that..
And that! What kind of a weak little nerd get's hopelessly held down by a lead corner-piece of pipe and a door with a tire on it?! Especially with the adrenaline that must have been going through him! *smacks the master*
But the A/C 'died' when he 'sploded until the Master repaired and 'resurrected' him.
Well at least the Master DOES still treat them better then your average owner.
Oo... why did I say "Herbal Essence?"
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Aww, that's cute X3
I've done that so many times, it's shameful.
I think I read in a youtube comment once that the conveyor belt might have been lightly magnetized, but I doubt the Master had enough metal on him to hold him down like that o.O;
Then it's like I said, they're dead until resurrected 
I don't know XD
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Yes ^^..
shame on your WC. XD
Wow that's... that's a really dumb idea. XD Why would they magnetize the conveyer belt?
I suppose so.. O.O
I'm weird. XD
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To keep circular or small objects from rolling off? That's conveyor belt's pretty high up; it can't be safe if there are tires and pipes and bolts falling off.
I don't know how effective the conveyor'd be if it was only lightly magnetized, though. If it was magnetized any more, blocks and screws and such would stick to it and get underneath or something.
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Well the side rails on the sides of the conveyer, which contain the tracks and rollers, are a bit higher then the belt itself which would help with that. I think the problem your talking about is remedied by that funnel over the belt.. even though it's only used twice in the movie. XD For cars they can be dumped right on the belt, but for random parts and stuff they're dumped into the funnel.
You know what I realized too? The belt isn't rubber like say.. a belt at the grocery store. A rubber belt wouldn't be able to go around corners like that belt does.. I think it actually uses metal plates like the turn-table belts like at the luggage pick-up stations at the airports.
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Air pressure vents? You mean EYES?
Oh yes of course
How delightfull obsessive of you.
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They look like eyes, kind of some symbolism there making it look like a skull face and all. But they never move like the other characters.. meaning that they're a normal part of the machine's design.
Uuuh.. thanks T_- that's not insulting at all.
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I hope you don't mean you were really insulted. 
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Sorry, I guess it was just another case of not knowing the intent you going going for because of internet text and all. You sounded serious..but I guess you meant it in a joking 'giving a hard time' way huh? If so sorry for getting irritable with you.
It was just that you were one of a couple people giving me trouble about that.. saying I was being over-obsessed. 6.6
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Ahhh I'm sorry if it's a sensitive subject
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It's just an irritating subject.. Oo I mean what's wrong with over analyzing in the first place?
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Well, as your friend I get to tease you about it.
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while I like the blt stuff... u mad! hahaha
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You going into a lot of detail into something which is essentially a prop from a cartoon. The crusher doesn't really make much sense what with the two feeds (conveyer and the thing the racer car falls down)
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I don't understand your argument, how is having two different feeding mechanisms make it make less sense? Also if you've watched me for long time you should know that it's a stable of mine to over-analyze little shit.
Case and Point:
[link]
[link]
[link]
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huh... I don't actually know what those things are
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eh... I'm not a spaceship/scifi fan
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You're a .... something fan.
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holy crap, man, you nailed it. Impressive.
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Thank you VERY much. : )
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You are amazing in your detailed artwork. I like details. I look at them a lot. You are the first person besides myself who, suffice to say, probably had a childhood obsession with this car-crushing device. I was very fascinated with the compactor more-so than the giant evil magnet. In fact, the compactor was my favorite 'character' in the film.
It's funny how I grew up thinking that almost all real-life car crushers looked just like this one. Part of me always wished that such a thing like Ernie's Compactor could actually be real or at least reproduced for mere show. I suppose that anyone with a skill in mechanics and hydraulics could build something like this. I would love to see that happen.
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Hey a new person, thanks for the epic comment dude.
All real life crushers do manage to look pretty lame when compared to this thing. Standing tall, looking like some kind of skull face that eats your car up. Not to mention the noise it makes, very rhythmic and kinda catchy actually.. if not haunting. You might like to know, I was able to create a loop of the crusher's sound.. I'm gonna make a soundfx youtube video and put it up.. I should probably announce it on DA so you know.
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That would be very neat to hear. Keep up the good work.
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