I've completed the First Order Lever pull-the-tab page. I've added some colour and some text explaining how levers work and giving some examples of their use.
I'll be making a few final changes to the parts and completing the instructions in the next day or so then I'm planning on making this page available as a preview sample for my lovely subscribers :-)
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One of the delights of my job is the feedback - I love to see how people have taken models and downloads and developed them into their own projects.
I was sent these picture taken by Megan Hitchens and daughter Jessica of the Space Cow they created using one of the starting projects from Cardboard Engineering Source Book. Isn't it fantastic! It comes complete with jet pack, space helmet and even the air hose from the back pack to the helmet.
I love it!
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Locked myself in the office this evening and made good progress on the lever pull-the-tab page. The movement is silky smooth. Pull the tab and the see-saw rocks.
The force and load arrows stay vertical and the mechanism itself is quite neat.
I showed it to #1 son who was suitably appreciative of the front of the page. When I flipped it over and showed him the back where the mechanism is displayed in all its glory I got the full "Woah! Cool!" reaction.
He is his father's son.
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I'm experimenting with pull tab mechanisms for my Levers eBook. I need a tab that I can pull that will remain lined up with its direction of movement. It needs to move easily.
I've made a tube to run the pull tab inside. The first draft used a simple 'V' shaped fold to hold the tab (Top picture). If the moving tab is anything but completely straight it wedges into the corner of the fold and becomes hard to move. To overcome this I used a double fold as shown in the bottom picture. It only need to be half a millimeter across and suddenly the tab moves freely.
It adds depth to the page but works really well.
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Some days are all about background, putting things in place for the next stage of a model. Today has been one of those days. Lots of work with nothing much to show for it. Ah well.
I've had a couple of ideas for projects and a nice chat with my parents. My dad and I were discussing what it was that makes a metal look like a metal. What quality of the surface gives it that metalic look. It came up again later in the day when I was trying to recreate a metallic effect for the side of a model. I'm fairly sure it is all about the reflections, this makes it hard on a model because as the model is rotated the reflections need to change. What would you think about using kitchen foil in a model? Is it something that everyone has available to them?
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The Levers ebook that I'm working on is slowly taking shape. There will be some pull-the-tab moving pictures showing the principles of levers as well as information, some models to make and a bit about applying this knowledge to designing your own models.
I've been working on the page for the 1st order lever. That's a lever where the pivot point is in the middle between the force and the load, like a see-saw.
I've had fun making the arrows stay upright as the lever rocks, currently I'm using a slot to run the arrow in but this may change as the model is refined.
Notice the text in the page layout, I've used a temporary place holder, I'll be adding more diagrams and proper explanatory text later on. For the moment I have used the standard place holder text that has been used by printers since the 1500s. When printers and designers want to see how a page will look before they have the finished words they use the Lorem ipsum text. I used lipsum.com to generate a paragraph for me. The idea is that the lengths of the words, the mix of descenders and ascenders and the lengths of paragraphs give a page that looks just like normal text.
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I've completed the instructions and card for the daffodil model, The file consists of a Mother's Day card depicting the finished model, parts pages and illustrated instructions. If you're a subscriber you can download the file, print it out then either make it into a kit for your Mother to make or make it up yourself.
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The flower paper sculpture is complete, I've put the parts pages for subscribers to download with this post. Its all fairly straight forward to make so hopefully you'll be okay without instructions, I printed mine onto paper rather than card and it worked nicely. I'll be getting a presentation version of the instructions done as quickly as possible. (Can I recommend that if you really want to be able to get on with your work, don't get a dog.)
The centre of the flower is a section of cone. I'd made it roughly yesterday, today I cut apart the piece and dropped it into the scanner. I measured the original at around 34 degrees or curve - to make things easier, I changed it to 36 degrees. (6 lots of 6 degrees, one for each tab) I then created a set of construction lines like those shown here and drew the yellow part on top.
Works a treat!
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Mother's Day is coming up this Sunday - at least in the UK, is it the same in the US and elsewhere in the world? I've taken a break from my levers ebook to create a paper sculpture for this special occasion. I'll be creating an attractively presented layout so that it can be given either as a completed flower or as a craft project or even as a pdf file depending on the Mother. I should have the finished thing about this time tomorrow.
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At the heart of every computer lies the central processing unit, a vast collection of microscopically small switches and logic-gates. Now, through the power of paper we bring you those same logic gates in goat form.
Presented here is the or-gaot, the goat will nod his head if you press the left button OR the right button OR both buttons.
Download the model, print it onto thin card then cut out and assemble following the clear, fully illustrated instructions. You'll need some small coins to act as weights, PVA glue ( white school glue), scissors, ruler and a sharp knife.
Buy All Four Logic Goats for Only £8!
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