Legends of Zelda tensegrity structure

(From Summary) Using physics and a couple of strings you can make half of your design seems like it is  magically floating in the air. It is different than other tensegrities because it has a Legends of Zelda theme.

Steps

Assembly Instructions for Tensegrity Structure

Tools: Small Philips head screwdriver, pliers, fishing wire, two 3D printed bases, two 3d printed beams, and 10 golden hooks

Step 1. 

1a. After printing out the pieces, gently hammer a hole into all 3 corners of the base using a hammer and a Philips head screwdriver with a very small head. Be very careful to not create a big hole.

1b. 

Gently place the hooks into the previously created holes. Using pliers, press the 3 hooks down with some force. The hooks should go down until you can not see their body. 

1c. Repeat this process with the boomerang beams. Use the hammer to poke a hole at each beam's bottom face of their top half. Insert a single hook into each beam.

Step 2.

2a. Insert each beam into the indented rectangle on each of the faces. They should slot in pretty easily, but you may have to use some pliers to scrape off extra filament.

2b. Repeat this process with the other half of the tensegrity structure.

Step 3. 

3a. After assembling both halves of the tensegrity structure, cut out around 15 cm of fishing wire. Have one person hold up one part of the tensegrity structure. Notice that the corners of a triangle base do not line up with the corners of the other base. Instead, each corner of one base lines up with the corresponding side of the other base.

3b. While being held up, have another person tie the wire around the hooks on both beams using a square knot. To create a square knot, hold both ends of the string in both hands, and cross them over. With your right, hand wrap one end of the string around the other one, one time.The string that was in your right hand should now be on the left side. Grab it with your left hand and wrap it around the other string again. Pill both sides of the string to tighten. Make sure the wire is as tight as possible. For more help, watch Square Knot Tutorial.

Step 4.

4a. Cut out 4 long pieces of fishing wire. While someone is still holding up half of the tensegrity, have the other person tie square knots from the 2 corners of the bottom base up to a singular point on the top base. These strings should meet at the top to create a triangle. Make sure these two wires are tight.

4b.  Repeat this process again, however this time, the two strings should come down from the top base to meet at the singular hook at the bottom base.

(Add image from assembling final of wires)

Step 5

5a. Add two more hooks on both bases, based on the locations in the picture.

(Add a picture of location of these hooks)

5b. Cut out two more pieces of wire, and tie square knots connecting the corresponding hooks of both bases. The tensegrity structure should now be able to stand on its own.

Design Choices        

1. Me and my partner got the inspiration to make a Legends of Zelda tensegrity structure from our teacher Mr. T. We decided to use boomerangs as beams and the triforce as the plates.

1. I worked on sketching the beam and Joel worked on the plate.
   
2. After assembling our pieces together in Solidworks we decided to add some detail because it was too plain and boring.

1. We decided to make our beam look more like the triforce by adding the wings from the actual triforce to the plates.

1. Me and Joel added a different pattern to each beam. One beam with stripes and one with circles.

1. After changes to the plate and realizing the plates would face in different directions we put the strings opposite each other.

1. We changed where the strings were to hold up our design.

1. After building our structure we found a major flaw in our design. There was nothing supporting our structure on the side so we added two more strings so it would be more stable.

1. For the final draft me and Joel decided to add out names to our beams and had to make a couple of changes along the way.

1. Me and Joel wanted to use a better filament for our final draft than our first draft. After reprinting our pieces we realized tiny issues with two of our pieces.

1. Our hooks were easy to put in the bases and out the first beam then on the second beam, our hook ended up breaking and splitting the beam. Me and Joel started to scrape out some plastic around the hook so we could pull it out, but then decide with a little advice from Mr. T that we would split the beam even more which allowed us to get the old hook out, the new one in, and reattach the beam together with hot glue.

1. Sometimes we would have to hot glue or super glue the hooks down because our holes were too big or we pulled on the strings too much.

1. We decided to add a few more strings to our tensegrity structure to make it more sturdy, since our structure was still a bit unstable.