Implements

(Continuation from Sep. 02. 2020) 

Lets look at items 2 and 3 of the Agenda: Suitable and effective implements and the best way to connect them to SM securely. My tests have shown a near certainty for most implements to follow the push of centrifugal force, if not fastened securely to SM!

 

Implements

So, let us consider suitable implements first. The vendor makes a point of recommending a maximum weight of 100 g. for any toy. Now, that seems to exclude most widely used tools, right? - Wrong! 

Canes: peeled or untreated, with or without handles, latex coated or not, 6 mm till 1 cm diameter, even the knobbed baton of an english Officer: 16-70 g! 

Wooden Switches (hazel, willow, birch): 20-50g.

Synthetic Riding Switches: 30-100g (depending on weight of the handle).

Crops: The ones from synthetic material including a "Sulgenholz Crop" will weigh between 70-90g.

Kitchen Aids (Spatulas, spoons etc):  50-90g

Rulers (wood or lexan): 60g

Hairbrushes: from 100g upwards up to 170g. There might be even heavier ones. All of those I own, are wooden brushes as it should be. The is one notable exception. My bathbrush with a long handle has a weight of 140 g, however the weight is concentrated on the head. With the lever of the long handle, SM is quite capable to accelerate it enough to give a nice sting.

Wooden paddles: I have only four. Two are 50-80g,  the other two much heavier.

We see, weight is no real problem. Almost all wooden toys are fairly light and may be accelerated by SM to speeds effective enough to make a bottom burn! However, weight is just one factor influencing the pain potential of an implement. Length, of course, is the other important factor, because any toy has the highest speed at its tip. With an 80 cm long and about 6mm thick dragon cane SM will leave a lasting impression on anybody's behind 😁.

Leather Implements

Multi-Tail-Whips: A rather difficult subject. Some of the smaller floggers or martinets will weigh around 100g, but most are heavier ~150g. If the thongs are relatively short (30-40 cm) they may produce a little sting without giving SM a hard time controlling them. However, their bite will be marginal.

But the length of the thongs is the problem. In a real life situation, the Top has a lot more to watch than severity of strikes and hitting the target. He is busy constantly with rearranging the tangled thongs and controlling their flight. The machine cannot do this. The thongs can get caught somewhere and the machine will try to pull them free. In other words, whips with thongs long enough to hurt are of little practical use with SM. However, I own a small leather whip with a 30 cm flexible leather grip and 4 thongs as long. It is compact enough to be used with SM and the contact is nice. Nevertheless, I would prefer a human arm controlling a whip with teeth to it.

Single Tail Whips: They may be used very effectively with SM.  A single thong will follow its path fairly straight if it is not too long. The vendor suggests making your own single tail adapted to the special limitations of SM.
Its failrly easy to build, and the sting of the damn thing is really impressive. Here is how it goes: Take a short stick (ca 40 cm length) and drill two or three 1-2mm holes into it at one end. Then take an insolated light cable (ca 50 cm length and 4-5 mm diameter) and drill holes into it as well (of course corresponding to the holes in the cane). Then fasten it to the cane using very small cable binders sticking them through all the holes. That gives a very tight and stable connection. This make shift whip hardly looks like a professional toy, but it will do its job admirably with SM.

The stiff, long cane handle partially supporting the tail will give it enough guidance to fly straight and not wobble through the air missing its target. Needless to say: don't hit yourself with the part holding the cable binders! They might pierce your skin. The  The reason for using electric cable as fall: it is stiffer than a leather thong, and has the necessary weight . I have tried several materials, the electric cable was the most effective one.

Other Leather Implements: That is a rather sad story. A few of my toys are fairly light, however most will be around 150-170 g. They can be mounted to SM without problems, but the machine will not accelerate them fast enough to give an impact that will make an impression. Perhaps, if you stay with it and let the paddle or the tawse "work" for a while (no idea how long), you might in fact wind up with a hot bottom.

Facit: the wooden and synthetic implements are more suited because they are stiff and light weight and can be accellerated by SM enough to make an impression. King of the roost is the cane. My guess is, that the SM was modified as spanker machine mainly in oder to work with a cane. But most of the wooden implements I have tested are quite acceptable, too. Overall picture: There is a wide range of usefull Toys, just take your pick and stick to the effective ones!

A word to the "short weapons": Hairbrushes, kitchen tools and the like are quite short and usually have a small head. These "business ends" will not even cover one buttock. So you will have to move around a lot to get your whacks distributed evenly. And you must stay very close to SM. A rather impractical situation. But impact sound and effects may be worth the "labour", if you install SM to strike vertically. In this case you are laying prone and SM strikes from above. That is always an option.

How to mount implements

Originally, SM comes with a flat platform fixed permanently to the arm of the moving coil which does the "work" of SM. Another flat plate is the counter piece lined up loosely to the base by two screws. Between the two flat surfaces, the implements are supposedly to be fixed.

As I have mentioned before, centrifugal force always is a physical element of fast moving objects. As an example: look at the hammer thrower in sports. Rotating in a small ring he accelerates the hammer to finally fly 80 meters. My cane has made it several times to the bedroom wall only!  But any implement will come loose eventually, if it is not fixed very securely. Since most toys have a round handle or are otherwise uneven at the end, two flat surfaces are absolutely not suitable to hold them tightly.

Ideally, you will want to hold a round item by an arched clamp as best fit. That also allows for a knob at the end of an implement.

The round handle of a crop is held securely by an arched clamp. You may use any of this kind. They are for sale at any hardware store. However think of the two holes which have to be 5 cm apart to let the two screws pass through the clamp. If you increase friction by one or two pieces of soft rubber, the toy will be held securely. 

There is another advantage of that way of mounting  almost any toy. 

Many toys have more or less thick knob as part of the handle. Using the flat plates supplied, it will not be possible to mount such toys. However using the sturdy metal clamp leaves some space between toy and housing of SM (see first picture above). The implements will move freely when the coil is winding and uncoiling, moving the mounting plate with it..

Padded with a liberal number of rubber pads, even a 6mm cane will stay where it belongs and will not fly across the room as I have experienced more than once.

But this wonderful clamp can even hold completely flat implements as shown below.

I have contacted the producer and I am fairly sure he will change the mount in the future. I have had some accidents of implements shaking loose and flying across the room. That can be prevented easily.

SM comes with a clamp which can be fastened to a flat surface, e.g. a table or service trolley which can be moved around. The octagonal arm will fit into this clamp.

I have tested this alternative way to install SM. At the first impression, it works quite well. The advantage is the totally flexible way to position SM depending how you want to present your behind. However, that damn centrifugal force developed by SM wrenches the clamp away from the table. If you don't react fast enough SM including implement will land on the floor :-((. 

The only way to solve this problem would be to ruin the table top. If you drill two holes through the clamp and into the table, you can screw the clamp to the table. If you have an old table which may be damaged without regret, that installation would be optimal.

Moving the table to position SM ideally for a relaxing scene certainly is the best solution. My own installation (SM screwed tightly to a bedpost) leaves some wishes open regarding a relaxed positioning of my bottom. But I am working on it.

In a peculiar way, SM has kept me busy during the Corona lockdown. In the future, I want to return to reading, making music, and pursuing all these normal hobbies conventional people are busy with (LOL).

(will be continued)