The inspiration for this project came from one of Dr. Wettergreen’s books on wood construction. After I got the idea, however, I did the design entirely based off of pictures of actual pumpjacks online. This meant that I neglected a few key geometric constraints with respect to the ratio of the secondary arm and counterbalance lengths. This was the failed result of one of those attempts:

After I resolved those issues, the main problem became differentiating between items that had to remain fixed to the axles and components that could spin freely. Ultimately I settled on using super glue after several attempts with epoxy failed. In order to fully assemble the drive train component (on the left in the pictures) I had to glue everything, including supports, off of the board and then press-fit the whole assembly into the base. Another issue I had was with spacing between components so that they could move freely without hitting axles which I resolved by cutting a number of ‘donut’ shaped spacers. Finally, I used the vinyl for two purposes: first, I modified the Texaco logo to use my name; second, I cut a piece to perfectly fit the head of the pumpjack to attach my ‘polish rod.’ Unfortunately, this proved extremely difficult to attach (I still hate vinyl) so it does not look as elegant as I would like. It does, however, function correctly.