Owl in The Box

• Raeedah Alsayoud

For the midterm project, we create a box where the owl comes out.

Outline: 

  1. Project
  2. Design
  3. Mechanical Movements
  4. Process for this project
  5. Low-fidelity Prototype
  6.  Medium fidelity prototypes
  7.  High fidelity with function and aesthetics.
  8. Problems and Improvements
  9. Cost

The first step was collecting ideas about what we would do and what mechanical model works with it. 

Project: 

Our project is called Owl in the box. This project is based on the Jack-in-the-box toys. A box similar to this, with a popping owl, and instead of having spring to make the toy pop up, we used gears. Also, we added a wall in the middle of the box where the different gears were added. The handle to make the mechanism move was attached to one of the gears, crossing half of the box to come out on the front of the box. The popping figure will push the lid open when moving upwards.

 

Design: Owl in the box

       

 

Mechanical Movements: 

We used the mechanical movements for low-fidelity prototypes: 24, 138, and 276. However, we combined 138 and 276 by changing the central three-sided component from 138 to 276. The moving parts in the mechanism will be the two gears and the stick that goes up and down.

We realized this mechanical movement was insufficient for our project; we changed to 113 for medium and high-fidelity prototypes.

  1.    

Process for this project:

  1. Designed our box using adobe illustrator and gear generator
    1. we created files in adobe illustrator for the box, owl, handle, and small parts like washers
    2. downloads the gear from the gear generator
      1.                 
  2. We used laser cutting to cut the box parts and gears.
    1.      
  3. We used a water jet for the handle
  4. Used vinyl cutter for “R” sticker
  5. Assembled all parts
  6. Post process

a. files the pieces 

 b. Sandblasting

c.  sticker 

d.  paints

   

e. clear coat 

Low-Fidelity: Low-Fidelity Video

       

Medium Fidelity: Medium Fidelity Video

High Fidelity: High Fidelity Video

          

Problems and Improvements: 

  1. Hinge
    1. When we used laser cutting, it burned part of the cardboard for the hinge part between the back and lid. We thought the cardboard was the reason since we were cutting small pieces for the hinge. However, we realized the main problem was the file. We changed the file for medium and high fidelity and used a 1-D hinge instead of 1.5-D.
    3. Also, the measurements for the lid hinge between the top and back were incorrect. We lowered the hinge in the back to get accurate measurements.
    4. Finally, the lid pulls the hinge down, which could cause it to break up with time. We added a small part on the back of the box for high fidelity to hold the lid and avoid breaking down the hinge.
    5.          
  2. Mechanical Movements
    1. The other problem was the stick did not go up and down without slipping or getting stuck. We changed the mechanical movements for two main reasons: to make the stick go up and down without falling or getting stuck and to have a reasonably sized figure. The TA told us If we wanted a sufficiently sized figure, it would require a huge box since the movement makes the stick go up a proportionally small section compared to the gear size. As a result, we decided to change the movements (24, 138, and 276) to 113. We chose this movement because of another project we saw at OEDK to make their object go up and down.
    2.       
    3. During our medium fidelity, we had a problem with the straight gear. It moved farther away from the small gear, which caused difficulties in moving the figure up and down; We added a small wall behind the straight gear to ensure it would not move to the other side and make the movements better.
    4.   
    5. The other problem during medium fidelity with straight gear: the figure was too heavy to move up and down; as Dr.Wettergreen suggested, we made one straight gear taller than the other to paste the figure on and made the movements easy for high fidelity.
    7. While sanding the rod, we broke it because we put in a lot of force. To avoid this problem, decrease the pressure and stop the machine occasionally to measure the rod with a bearing.
    8.  
  3. Design
    1. We had some difficulty holding the inside wall with the box without moving. We added an engraved line to the box’s bottom, left, and right sides for medium and high fidelity to insert the wall and avoid moving. 
    2. Medium fidelity: we changed the washers that connect the small gear with the rod from metal to wood to have the exact size connect the gear with the rod without moving. Also, after adding the “door” for the handle, the mechanism is harder to move because the holes are not aligned. We measure the hole for the inside wall and the front side of the box for high fidelity to make the movement smooth.  
    3. High fidelity: After we used laser cutting for the outside box, we decided to add a cover on the top and only the figure puppies out. If we think about it early, we will avoid the magnetic to connect the cover with the box and prevent the small space between it.
    4.    
    5. Furthermore, after we painted the parts, we realized we needed to sand our wood to make our box smooth when we touched it. 

Cost: The cost is based on materials and final model hours only. The total cost is $356.61.

  1. Materials: total $62.61 
    1.  Three Plywood = $8.91* 3 =  (Home Depot)
    2. Metal = $14.93 (Home Depot)
    3. UltraCover paint (Blue and white)= $6.48 +6.48  (Home Depot)
    4. Rolling Bearing= $7.99 (Home Depot)
  2. Machine time: around 6 hours   
    1. Water jet 14 min
    2. Laser cutting around 4 hours
    3. vinyl cutter 40 sec
    4. Sanding around 54 min
    5. Sandblasting 17 min
    6. belt sander and circular around 6 min
  3. Labor: around 50 hours and each hour is $12 = $600 
    1. Adobe illustrator 
    2. filed-
    3. paints
  4. Final model hours was 24 hours and 40 min and each hour is $12 = $294 
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