week 3

The assignment for week 3 was to build a kinetic sculpture using a DC motor. I decided to build Stitch jumping on a "pogo stick" using a circular cam movement.

the process

I grabbed some materials that I thought I'd need to start: some cardboard, a plastic dowel, hot glue, and wood. I used other materials that we used in week 3 lab as inspiration: the white 3d printed items as well as the peg board were the basis for the idea of my design.

Some of the pieces at first were not compatible with my design. I attempted to mount a ball bearing to the a cardboard backing, and to attach a motor's rotating axis to the ball bearing. That connection wasn't strong enough, so I decided to use wood as the backing instead.

The band saw was broken so I used a hand saw to cut out a piece of wood. I drilled a hole large enough for the motor's rotating piece to fit through without friction; I carved other sections out so that the motor would lay completely flush against the backboard.

Next, I hotglued the motor to the backboard, and attached a circular piece of cardboard to the other side of the rotating part of the motor. I also attached a plastic dowel to the cardboard with a nut and a screw so that the dowel could stay pointing upward as the rest of the cardboard circle rotated.

I tested the setup before realizing that the plastic dowel would still need to be held in place! Here's what that looked like:

After drilling screws into the board to secure a metal piece which constrained the plastic dowel, I glued a 3D printed stitch to the dowel. There's an extra dowel between the 3D print and the plastic dowel so that stitch won't come into contact with the backboard!

the finished product: