Wave Tensegrity Model

Summery:

Designed by Dab (Rishab and Dante) - A beautiful decorative tensegrity model with a cloud, wave, and lightning bolt. It has a really cool design to make it look like a stormy sea. It uses fishing line. Here is the link to the hooks we used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JMK9GCC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lesson Plan & Activity:

We had to make a custom tensegrity structure with a partner, capable to hold weight without collapse. Here are 2 examples:

Tools you will need:

• Ruler (Metric)
• Pencil
• Hammer
• Clamps
• Super Glue
• Sandpaper
• Needle-Nose pliers
• Flush Cutters
• Cutting tool
• Small Phillips screwdriver
• Fishing Line
• Hooks (1mm diameter)

Assembly Instructions:

Step one - Prepare your parts for assembly:

1a) Print each STL out. Take your parts off the printer bed. Now that you have your parts.

1b) Remove any sort of support filament and excess material, you must now start 

the assembly. 

Step two - Add all the hooks and connect parts:

2a) Locate the 14 indents you will find on the 3 parts. There is where all the hooks will be placed. Screw in all 14 hooks in the indents on all the cloud, bolt, and wave. Use a needle-nose plier to fit the hook in, your hand to mostly tighten and screw the hook in, and the same needle-nose plier to fully screw it in.

If all 14 hooks go in with no problem, Great! You are all set to move on to step 2b!

If not all 14 hooks go in:

Use a tiny philip's head screwdriver to deepen the indents where the hook doesn't fit, with the help of a hammer. Insert hooks in all remaining indents. Repeat this step until all indents have hooks in them. Once all hooks have been placed, you are ready for step 2b.

Now that you have your hooks in,

2b) Fit the bolt into the indent in the base of the cloud.

If the bolt fits into the cloud properly, Amazing! You may now move to step 3!

If the bolt doesn't fit into the cloud properly:

Sand down (using sandpaper) or scrape off (using cutting tool) the sharp edges at the top of the bolt. Sand down or scrape off any excess plastic on the insides of the cloud. Repeat this step until the bolt fits properly into the cloud. You may now move on to step 3.

Step three - Achieve Tensegrity by tying fishing line:

Now that you have all your hooks set and bolt in the cloud,

3a) Tie the fishing line, using square knots (left over right, right over left), through the corresponding hooks (eg. hook under the wave curve should be tied to the hook on the bolt). 

If you have achieved tensegrity without any imbalances or loose slack, Congratulations! You have finished creating your wave tensegrity model!

If there is any loose slack after tying:

Cut the loose lines, and retie until you have achieved tensegrity without any imbalances or loose slack. You have now finished creating your wave tensegrity model!

Rishab's Design Choices:

Initilally when we were brainstorming ideas and finding inspiration, we had a lot of difficulty deciding what to design. We had a lot of ideas. Here are some of the sketches we made:

We finally decided to go with the wave idea:

We started working on redesigning this figure. The wave was similar to how we wanted it to be, but the cloud didn't look really nice as one part, so we chose to add a lightning bolt to the design. Here are the sketches:

Initial:

Final:

We then created the digital models on the software we use called Solidworks:

This was our wave:

This was our cloud:

This was our lightning bolt:

Sadly we had to modify both the wave and the cloud to use less material, but the result we ended with was to our satisfaction. We ended up hollowing out a lot of the cloud, while making the wave almost completely hollow:

Here was our version one tensegrity structure:

As you can see, the bolt was touching the wave, which wasn't an issue to the structure, but it was something that didn't look aesthetically pleasing to us, so we redesigned the bolt to make it look better:

We also removed more material from the cloud as it took way too long to print:

Our Final Draft looks really cool. Here is what we ended our project with:

We used a darker filliment for the wave, because we lacked the amount of needed filament for our other chosen colour. (Although personally I prefer this colour).

As a personal design choice, I decided to make my bolt colour yellow, because I think that colour better compliments the rest of the design. However, when you print this, you may choose your preferred colour.