Sheldon expands minds with tinkering

One mother-daughter team put its robot together with a glue gun.

Another Flathead Valley Community College student used twist ties to get his robot in one piece.

Their instructor Gordon Sheldon couldn't be prouder. He succeeded in teaching them to think creatively to solve problems.

In Sheldon's class, students disassemble junk to find motors, batteries, controls and sensors for parts to build robots. It's an essential part of his teaching method.

"When you do this kind of stuff, you learn how things work," he said.

Sheldon launches his spring robotics course Wednesday through the continuing education division of the community college. For $45, students build a contraption that moves by its own power under their control.

From 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, Sheldon leads a voyage of discovery into the dream machines disguised in outdated cell phones, broken microwaves and dinosaur computers from scrap yards.

"I teach them to be environmentally aware," he said.

Sheldon's unique approach to robotics has earned him requests for articles from major magazines and a spot on the "Screen Savers" tech television program last spring.

"Those guys were really cool," Sheldon said. "They don't have any egos."

He did the segment live. Along with a free trip to San Francisco, Sheldon got to share his philosophy with a national audience.

The inventor also learned about terrorist surveillance when he began taking multiple pictures of airplanes and other interesting aspects of the international airport operation in San Francisco.

"I noticed this guy following me every where I went," Sheldon said. "Every time I sat down, he sat down and started reading a newspaper."

He managed to evade arrest and board his flight back to the Flathead with a souvenir bottle of sand.

"I got to go see the ocean for the first time," he said with a laugh. "It was just really a lot of fun."

Sheldon gets as excited about teaching his robot classes as he does about the national recognition his ideas received in the last year. Each new crop of students brings revolutionary robot concepts to life.

"So far, none of them have looked the same," he said.

By the time students leave, Sheldon said they all have ideas for other inventions they want to pursue. A recent student called to tell him about the robot metal detector she has begun developing.

"One little boy called me to say he was putting his robot in a science fair," Sheldon said. "He wanted some ideas to spiff it up."

His class attracts both men and women as well as parent-child teams. The majority come with little or no technical knowledge but a fascination with robots.

"You don't need to be brilliant to be in this class," he said.

According to Sheldon, most students don't think they can understand robots. He uses concepts such as water running through a pipe to make the fundamentals of electricity easy to grasp.

"I teach them the skills and get out of their way," he said.

One young man ended up with a robot garbage can that ferried his clothes next door for a sleep-over with a friend. The instructor hasn't yet had a student who wasn't able to build a robot.

A father-and-son team moved on from Sheldon's class into the highly technical realms of semiconductor Stepper technology.

When he isn't teaching robotics, Shelton works full time on assorted inventions, using junk parts. He demonstrated a replica of a Hero steam engine he recently built.

From a black case, he pulled a titanium metal ring with a flywheel on top and a black sphere suspended over a burner.

Sheldon touched off the propane burner, heating the water in the sphere. Before long, the sphere was spinning as steam spewed out of jets around its circumference.

"It took a lot of work to figure out," Sheldon said. "It's a reactive steam engine."

Once he had his concept, he built it from damaged rings from a recycling yard, a flywheel from a cassette recorder, a float ball from a valve used at an old creamery and a burner from a campstove he found at the Salvation Army thrift store.

Occasionally, he hooks it up to a generator to play a radio when friends want to see it do something.

"People think that's really cool," he said with a laugh.

On a more practical level, Sheldon has hopes for a patent for a new, super-efficient engine he invented.

"I'm building a new concept Stirling engine that nobody has," he said.

People interested in Sheldon's robotics class should contact Flathead Valley Community College at 756-3832 or the instructor at 756-1585. The course runs through March 16.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com