It has exactly been half of a decade since I started making project work a daily activity. Less than two years have been recorded in this blog and they have been the two most ambitious years. More skills were gained and projects completed than any other period of my life. Not to mention all the writing. Every word that appears before my To Do list at the bottom was written by me plugging away at a keyboard. Some days it was really tough to add those words. Other days I probably wrote 1500 words in blog entries.
This has been a rewarding experience. I’ve talked to people online I would never have met otherwise. I’ve talked with students, a radio host, designers and people with awesome ideas who wanted to bounce around ideas. I suppose this is just a hobby but it is something worth sharing.
Thank you for reading and I hope 2016 is good to you.
Enough background.
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Low friction pivoting became the focus of the day. This was a design issue but not one that was going to be fixed in modeling, instead materials were changed. Instead of printing a cap for the compass a piece of brass strip was formed to become a cup. Forming the cup with household materials was done with an 8mm skate spacer and a #10 (5mm) acorn nut.
Forming the brass strip was a matter of squeezing the strip between the hollow end of the spacer and the rounded end of the nut. This pressure forced the strip to take the shape of the nut. A spherical item, such as a ball bearing, could have been used but the bearing would have been marred by the process.
A metal chopstick was used to center the formed strip over the compass spinner’s keyhole. This technique was used before to center the cap when it was glued in place. Once in place the strip was glued to the spinner.
Friction between the spinner and the post was lower than the plastic cap used before but magnetism lone was still not enough to move the spinner from a standstill. The top of the post was cut away and a small hole was drilled down the post. A small brass nail, escutcheon pin, had the head cut off and was glued in place in the hole. The pivot point was now metal-on-metal which provided the lowest friction pivot to this point.
Friction was no longer the problem but the spinner would not sit level. This can likely be solved with modeling to make the magnets sit farther below the pivot point. A sharper angle on the brass cup could also help.
To do:
First time here?
Completed projects from year 1.
Completed projects from year 2.
This has been a rewarding experience. I’ve talked to people online I would never have met otherwise. I’ve talked with students, a radio host, designers and people with awesome ideas who wanted to bounce around ideas. I suppose this is just a hobby but it is something worth sharing.
Thank you for reading and I hope 2016 is good to you.
Enough background.
----------
Low friction pivoting became the focus of the day. This was a design issue but not one that was going to be fixed in modeling, instead materials were changed. Instead of printing a cap for the compass a piece of brass strip was formed to become a cup. Forming the cup with household materials was done with an 8mm skate spacer and a #10 (5mm) acorn nut.
Acorn nut, 8mm steel spacer and brass strip
Forming the brass strip was a matter of squeezing the strip between the hollow end of the spacer and the rounded end of the nut. This pressure forced the strip to take the shape of the nut. A spherical item, such as a ball bearing, could have been used but the bearing would have been marred by the process.
Forming brass strip with channel pliers
A metal chopstick was used to center the formed strip over the compass spinner’s keyhole. This technique was used before to center the cap when it was glued in place. Once in place the strip was glued to the spinner.
Using chopstick to center grass strip for gluing
Friction between the spinner and the post was lower than the plastic cap used before but magnetism lone was still not enough to move the spinner from a standstill. The top of the post was cut away and a small hole was drilled down the post. A small brass nail, escutcheon pin, had the head cut off and was glued in place in the hole. The pivot point was now metal-on-metal which provided the lowest friction pivot to this point.
Adding escutcheon pin to base
Friction was no longer the problem but the spinner would not sit level. This can likely be solved with modeling to make the magnets sit farther below the pivot point. A sharper angle on the brass cup could also help.
Spinner sitting crookedly
To do:
- Add shroud to enclose spinner
- Make handheld haptic compass
- Make compass work from pocket or necklace
- Miniaturize
First time here?
Completed projects from year 1.
Completed projects from year 2.
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2015-12-29 (Tu)
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