Hi everyone! Marc and Ege here!
For our Midterm 1 project, we created a mechanical model using movement #24 from the 507 Mechanical Movements website. We were inspired by the Wicked movie and decided to have our design reflect how the 2 main characters fly, Elphaba and Glinda. Per the assignment, our model was required to include wood, vinyl, and post-processing. Additionally, we could only use tools that we have learned in the class thus far: laser cutting, vinyl cutting, spray painting, staining, woodwork, and metalwork.
Gate 1
For Gate 1, we conceptualized our project with sketches. Our initial sketch can be found below. We planned on fitting gears within a box to incorporate movement #24. The center of these gears have dowels extruding from their center. One dowel has a handle attached to it, while the other has a disk attached to it. The disk also has another dowel near its circumference. Although not reflected in the sketch, we added another gear and disk system to the design so that both Elphaba and Glinda could be included.
Our sketch for Gate 1.
We were inspired by carousel-like motion, so we also planned on including ramps on the top face of the box. The bottom of the dowel would go over this ramp and create an illusion of the characters moving up and down. Unfortunately, during prototyping, we found that with our materials, there would be too much friction for the dowel to clear the ramp. If we were able to include different materials and techniques in this model, perhaps we would have been able to include this component, but to simplify our design, we decided on omitting it from our final design since our project was already so smooth.
For post-processing, we decided on staining the box wood to a brown-ish color. This would contrast with laser cut wooden bricks that would be spray painted yellow (a nod to the yellow brick road). A laser cut emerald city, which was spray painted green, was also added as a decoration. The final touch on our design would be a nameplate describing our project, “Defying Gravity.”
Gate 2
In Gate 2, we attempted to visualize our model with laser cut cardboard and leftover dowels in the OEDK. We sketched each component in Adobe Illustrator and followed the settings as specified by the OEDK (0.072 pt stroke width for vector cuts). Our gears were made in Gear Generator here.
As you can see in the image below, our low fidelity prototype was not very robust. However, a big success from this gate was that our gears were the right fit and had motion as you can see in the video! Also, our character cuts were feasible and accurately cut by the laser cutter!
A rough low fidelity prototype.
Some character and plate cuts!
Gate 3
After proving our concept in Gate 2, it was time to use stronger materials, wood! To improve our box idea from Gate 2, we decided to use MakerCase to generate a press fit box for us. Our box has the following dimensions:
- 20’’ width
- 3’’ height
- 10’’ depth
- ¼’’ thickness
- 1.225’’ finger size
- 0.001’’ kerf.
Our gear dimensions can also be found here, and they were scaled to fit within the box. Holes were included on the top and bottom face of the box. The top face had holes for the 8 mm diameter dowels, and the bottom face had holes for the 22 mm diameter bearings.
Laser cutting gears for Gate 3!
Gears result.
Used wood glue to assemble a box for Gate 3.
Stained the box, gears, and plates as well!
Proof of Concept for Gate 3:
All of our pieces were laser cut from plywood sheets that were about ¼’’ thick. Note that our gears were laser cut twice so that we could increase their thickness and improve the smoothness of our model. Also, our dowels had to be sanded so that they could fit within the bearings. Images of some of our final laser cut files can be found below.
Elphaba and Glinda!
Parts of our box.
Gears and other parts of our box.
The Emerald City!
A sketch of the yellow brick road.
Our nameplate.
Final Processing
After everything was cut, we started to post-process! The wood was stained in the color Ipswich Pine. We spray painted our wooden bricks yellow, and our emerald city green. We also spray painted Elphaba green, and vinyl cut her hat, robe, boots. Elphaba’s broom and Glinda and her bubble were engraved using a speed of 80 and power of 30 on the laser cutter.
With every part cut and post-processed, it was time to assemble! All of the wood was glued together using wood glue, and epoxy was used to attach the bearings on the wood. Some epoxy was also used to get the dowels to adhere to the moving plate and their supports. We estimated the placement and length of each dowel to ensure that the characters would not collide with each other as the mechanical model moved. After everything was glued together, our model moved smoothly in an artistic way! A video of the finished product working can be found below! Overall, this was a very fun project. Although we did not get our carousel motion to work, we still enjoyed synthesizing the skills we have learned in this class into a mechanical model!
Cost Analysis for Final Product
| Item | Cost |
| 4 sheets of ¼’’ thick plywood | $21.92 |
| ~8 mm dowels | $4.99 |
| 8 mm diameter bearings | $9.99 |
| Wood glue | $6.94 |
| 2 cans of spray paint | $11.96 |
| Wood stain | $12.98 |
| Cost of labor ($23/hr for 20 hours) | $460 |
| Total Cost | $528.78 |
Cleaned Workspace
