For our project, we decided on Mechanical Movement 24 and an aquarium-design model. Initially, we wanted the fish to move up and down vertically, but we realized that this may be out of the scope and time-frame for this project, so we settled on rotational movement.
The fish would reside on dowels and the seaweed would be stagnant in the middle of the platform; this arrangement would mimic a display of the aquatic life, the same way an aquarium does.
For our low-fi prototype, we laser cut cardboard to the final scale. This helped us visualize the size and ensure that our gear designs functioned properly. This prototype stage went by smoothly, and we realized that we wanted to add another gear on the other side to hold another decorative element: a cat reaching to disturb the aquarium. This would give our design a new pop.
Because of the time constraints on the project check-ins and the extremely long machine lines, we used our medium-fidelity prototype time as time to print out all of our materials and have them prepared for assembly. We had some issues at this stage with the laser cutter settings varying because of all the people using it. Sometimes our wooden fish wouldn’t cut all the way through or our acrylic would cut halfway around a circle but not finish. Nevertheless, we got almost everything cut out and fitting properly. The only problem proved to be our dowels not fitting in the acrylic holes, but after lots of trial and error, we used the dremel and hand drill to widen the holes to the correct size.
After our third check-in, we had 3 takeaways/next steps. Our handle design interferes with our aquarium dowels, so we need to have another gear to serve as the crank. We also didn’t realize we needed a vinyl and metal piece so we had to add those to our design. Lastly, we realized we can take out all the bearings and allow our pieces to turn around wooden dowels/pieces.
Finally, we were able to do these last steps and some finishing touches. Problems with the vinyl cutter allowed us to save some time and focus on ensuring our final product was what we wanted. Also, the long lines and impending deadline caused us to change our design once again: we down-sized our cat and put our metal piece in the cat’s hands.
Overall, after the many weeks spent working on this, we are very satisfied and happy with how it came out. It’s exciting to see all of our hard work manifested into something real!
Costs:
- One acrylic sheet (most pieces were scraps) = $53.98
- 3 x 3ft dowels = 3 x $0.93 = $2.79
- Lots of scraps = free
- Orange Spray paint = $4.99
- Blue spray paint = $4.99
- Acrylic glue = $22.80
- Super glue = $6.29
- Labor (Mia) = ~45 hours x $20 = $900
- Labor (Alana) = ~43 hours x $20 = $860
- Laser Cutter x 5 hour = 5 x $15 = $75
- Plasma Cutter x 30 min = $180
- Total = $2110,98
What we learned:
- How to get pretty comfortable with laser cutter and Adobe Illustrator
- How to make a mechanical model (:
- 3D creativity and design (:
- Problem-solving skills and iteration
- After encountering random issues at every step of our problem, we had to rapidly problem-solve and push through. This often looked like a quick re-design, using a material we hadn’t thought of, or getting advice from a fresher set of eyes.
- Communication and teamwork
- Alana and I were constantly in communication about the project. We often went into the OEDK on our own times since our schedules and workloads didn’t always match up. This allowed for maximum work being put into the project and prevented any late-nights. We also updated each other on whatever progress we made which allowed us to pick up right where the other left off.
- Prototype translation and visualization
- Getting a pretty solid and to-scale prototype early on allowed us to know that our gears will function together. We also were able to realize that our project can be iterated upon and even expanded (ie when we decided to add another gear for the new cat aspect). Moving up in fidelity was always an experience in that we learned something new or encountered a roadblock at each stage. Prototype check-ins were very helpful and allowed us to get unique point-of-views we wouldn’t have otherwise had.
What we would do differently:
- Keep unique things in mind – ( ie what Rafe pointed out about hand crank interference)
- Always do test cuts!
- Find unique times to work around laser cutter lines
- Time management: printing all materials (metal, gears, wooden circles) early on to prevent last minute design changes
- Anticipate that acrylic glue does end up visible when glued despite being clear (we had to paint parts blue)
- Think ahead with gear sizes (we kept having to add more because we didn’t think about how big we wanted certain elements like the cat)
- Add some sort of lube because the gears can be difficult to turn
