Tensegrity Table

Problem Statement:  With a partner, you will design and create a single custom Tensegrity Structure of equal complexity or greater as the tables depicted above (as determined and approved by the instructor).

General Advice:

We worked on this project with a  partner which made it easier and harder in some ways. Everyday we switched off who worked on what part(the base or the arch). Because of this, we had to know exactly what we wanted beforehand. If one person was absent it made matters even worse. We had to catch the other person up on what they missed while trying to manage our time to get enough work done in the period. This project also had many bumps in the road. We had to learn new techniques in order to get things the way we wanted. One example of this would be using the spline tool. We used this tool to get rid of any overlapping lines in our J font.

Constraints:
 

• Design MUST take advantage of print orientation to create the strongest structure possible.
• Each piece should fit inside of a 15cm x 15cm square.
• When constructed, the final structure should fit in a 20cm x 20cm x 20ish cm cube.
• Parts MUST begin with a constraint box, center-rectangle CENTERED ON the origin)
• No single dimension can be smaller than 0.25cm
• All “plates” MUST have a thickness between 0.75cm and 1.00cm
• All “beams” should have a thickness of 1.00cm
• Engravings should be cut to a depth of 0.07cm
• Dimensions should be detailed but efficient.
• Sketches should be fully defined when complete.
• Parts MUST contain zero error messages.
• Structures MUST be assembled virtually before 3D Printing to ensure successful models.
• Screw hooks and fishing line will be provided for attaching your pieces.
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JMK9GCC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Assembly Instructions:

Tools Recommended: Hammer, Small Phillips head screwdriver, two pairs of small needle nose pliers, 2 rulers, a leveler, clippers, a writing utensil(preferably pencil), superglue if necessary 

Tools Needed: 10 small hooks, 4 pieces of  25 cm long fishing line

Section 1(Assembling the arches): 

• Once you see the hole where your hooks should go in, try to screw in a hook. If the hole is too small take a small Philips head screwdriver and place it on the hole. You then want to take a hammer and lightly tap the top of the Philips head screwdriver until a big enough hole forms for the hook
• .
• 

• If you made the hole too big on the arch, it is recommended to use superglue to make sure the hook stays in.
• Take a hook and insert one into one of the arches.
• 

• Do these steps again for the other arch.
• Once you have done that you will want to connect the two hooks with a bowline knot. You can choose your preferred distance of line but we recommend around 4 cm. 
• 

Step 2 (Hooks in the bases):

Locate your premade holes on the bases. Once you find them try to insert a hook into it.

If the hole is too small take a Philips head screwdriver and a hammer. Lightly tap again until you can hand screw the hook in.
 

• Repeat for the other base

Section 3 (Assembling your structure):

• Insert both ends of the legs into bases 
• 

• Have someone hold onto the arch while you get your fishing line. With a fishing line you want to tie a bowline connecting the lower and upper hook. If you inserted the hooks on the base properly the bottom and top hooks should be vertical to each other. 
• 
• Repeat tying the bowline to the other 3 hooks

• When done, put something that's not too heavy on your structure. If you notice that there are lines that are slacking you should keep that in mind. After checking all the lines, tightening the line that was slacking. You can do this by having your partner grab the end of the line of the bowline and you grabbing the line at the start. Once both of you pull the line should shorten and get tighter at the same time. Keep on repeating until you think you have a level of tensegrity structure. 

• Once you think you have finished, put a leveler on the top of your structure. You want all the bubbles to be in the middle. If the bubbles are not in the middle, find out what lines you need to adjust in order to do so.

• Once you are sure you are finished, clip off the extra line. Make sure to give an extra cm or two in case the line loosens 

Design Choices 

One of the major changes we made was moving the inserts for the arches on the base. We wanted it to be as close to the edge as possible in order for the arch to be bigger. At first we planned on doing a circle arch because our theme was arch/circular patterns. But we soon found out that it was impossible to 3d print a circle arch. In order to overcome this we cut off both ends of the circle to make it have 2 flat sides. This allowed us to maintain the circular arch shape and have it able to print. 

That being said, we also had to make changes to our arch. Instead of having a circular arch we changed it into a parabola. But, when we did do that the ends of the arch would not be horizontal. In order to fix that we added a vertical construction line to set the arch equal on both sides. We then added a  horizontal construction line across the base to have a reference point to make sure it was flat.

On our base and arch we also decided to add holes where we would insert the hooks. We did this because in our Version 1.0 we had to create our own holes. This led to us making the holes too big and forcing us to use hot glue or superglue to make sure the hooks stay in place.
 

In our Version 1.0 we also noticed that the overall size of the finished product was smaller than expected. In order to fix this we changed the shape of our legs. Instead of making it arched, we changed it to a parabola. This gave us more height in the middle of the design allowing us to add a string in the middle. 

After we printed our new bases the edges came out weird. We think that this is a problem because of the printer/filament/design choice. We could only control what we did in our design choice so we decided to make the edge of the base less curvy. Along with that, we also decided to make the overall dimensions of the base bigger to allow more space in between the edge of the base and the inserts for the legs.

On the other side of our base was originally a circular pattern. In order to add more design we got rid of the middle circles by skipping instances and adding our “logo” JZ.

At the ends of the parabola we added an extruded base. We did this so the ends could fit into the inserts 

On the legs we also changed the font of the letters. We decided to change this because in our Version 1.0 we noticed that the 3d printer could not clearly print out the small letters in that font. Knowing this we decided to change it to a nice blocky font to reduce the risk of the 3d printer messing up the font again.

Because we changed the shape of the arch into a parabola it created enough space for us to have a line connecting the two hooks in the middle instead of the two hooks latching on to each other. Along with that, we also decided to tie bowlines to attach the hooks together instead of the square knot. This was an aesthetic change.