The wind-up spider toy is off to a rocky start! There have been a few issues related to collecting my materials through online distributors, because some particular crucial components for building sets of 125 plastic gears only cost $13.oo but two months to ship from China. These gears would not arrive at my apartment until way after the class is over, so I need to look for alternatives. Unfortunately I also had to drop my top constraint of using a hydraulic fluid or air system, because I would need to dedicate 30-40 hours of my week in order to make this idea physically feasible.
I discussed with several different classmates my aesthetic choose to 3-D printing a black spider to act as a shell for the wind up spider toy, but I was told that there would be too many cantilevers and space for 3-D printing in the ITLL is extremely limited at this time of the year. This means I need to look for an alternative way to making my spider aesthetic. Casting plastics, or molding clay could be an excellent alternative.
In the next few weeks, I want to have all the necessary materials collected for the dynamic part of my project. Since I am unable to buy all the materials I need online I have to go to several different hobby and toy stores to collect the materials I need. (Munchkin’s Hardware Store, Michael’s, Into the Wind, etc.) The plan is to gut, cannibalize, and strip different toys so I can create a “Frankenstein” like Wind-Up toy, because 3-D printing tiny gears on the millimeter scale is extremely hard and I need the tolerances of the plastic gears pinion teeth to mesh up properly for locomotion.
Fabrication Timeline:
- March 16th – March 30th: Acquire all materials and parts for my project.
- March 28th – April 1st: Prototype the drive train mechanism.
- April 2nd – April 4th: CAD the dynamic components, and Draw “gesture” drawings for the aesthetic spider shell to house the wind up toy skeleton.
- April 4th – April 11th: Build Wind Up Toy in ITLL Machine Shop and collect toys to destroy for aesthetics supplies.
- April 11th – April 20th: Trouble Shoot drive train and make the aesthetic spider shell to house over the wind up toy skeleton.
- April 21-22nd: Busy preparing and presenting at the Senior Design Expo for Mechanical Engineers.
- April 23rd: Present at ITLL Design Expo.
Update – May 4, 2016: Here is my original presentation video for the CDR/PDR: I forgot to post it, but here is my beautiful face and voice.
https://youtu.be/JctXjsSM-oQ
2 Comments. Leave new
making toys Is not an easy job, but it is a very interesting and creative project. 3D printing is an interesting method but it is not always very reliable, and I agree with that you should not construct every thing using a 3D printer. and as you said they 3D is not very good in the small scale but they can be very useful for the larger prints.
Shipping is the worst. I think if you make that Frankenstein top spider it would be cool. Alternatively, you could buy a spider toy for the aesthetic aspect of your design and just focus on the gears and mechanical specs.