how does a wind-up carousel work?

Question

I'm working on a sculpture project, and I'm wondering how I would be able to create a wind-up carousel with a simple cam. any links you can find will help me.

a cam, meaning a gadget made from wire or pieces of wood that can be turned like a crank usually has a wheel.

Answer 1

A windup carousel that is going to carry any weight is probably going to have to have a box holding the motor mechanism and any cam follower you put in with a Lazy Susan Bearing, which is a flat metal unit with a ring of balls between two thin metal plates more commonly used for table condiment trays. Finding a slow moving wind up motor may be a problem.(after looking on internet, I guess not, see source).
If you are wanting a single cam, I assume you are doing something where followers ride the cam and lift and drop the horses on a more common merry go round. This is mostly a matter of pivoting levers holding the object on one end and leaning against the surface of the cam at the other. Hard to describe here. The cam can be on the center post or under the surface.