william and jack airhockey table

Post date: Oct 24, 2017 6:52:01 PM

Our initial idea was an air-hockey table and it ended up actually quite similar to our end product. We wanted to make a box with fans mounted on the bottom and a hole filled board on top. We also 3-D printed a puck and striker. In order to make our wooden table, we had to first make a cardboard model that was about half size of the original which was supposed to be 24"x 48". We used a laser cutter to cut the holes in the board and a razor to cut out the rest of the pieces. Our cardboard model got approved and we started construction on the wooden final model. First things first we started with the hole filled board so we could build around the central piece. We had a lot of help deciding what tools to use and what techniques would best suit our needs, this help was provided to us by Mr. Gainley and Mr. Digiorgio. We also had help from some friends who popped in occasionally on their free time to help us with projects that involved multiple people to hold and balance things. I am very proud that we were able to complete this project in the allotted time because we were told from go that it would be very difficult and that other people had tried and given up. It was definitely difficult. We had to learn a lot along the road ranging from the proper way to use wood glue to how to use the milling machine and everything in-between: table saws, hand saws, circular saws, jig saws, circular sanders, power sanders, multiple types of drills, 3-D printers, laser cutters, and even a nail gun which wasn't even for our project. It was an amazing learning experience which resulted in a pretty decent final project.

First, we brainstormed ideas and decided we wanted to make an air hockey table. But we also came up with other back up ideas; we had a remote control airplane, a charging phone case, and a rocking chair. We wanted to do the air hockey table even though our teacher said it would be a lot of work and we should probably do the remote control airplane. Our teacher explained that the project is much more complicated than it seems and that several other students had already started it and given up. We took this into consideration and decided to do some research before we decided; we decided to build the air hockey table.

To be able to make the larger version of our air hockey table, we first had to make a smaller prototype. We cut most of the measurements in half and converted the rest to their proper size and began working. We designed a board with the proper holes in it on ink scape and then we used the laser cutter to make the board, and we ended up having to go back over the holes with a small nail to push themm all the way through because the laser cutter didn't through all the way and we needed to know how the air would flow through the holes. We also designed a box out of cardboard for the perimeter of the box and designed other details like the legs and goals.

Once we had designed all these elements we began constructing our cardboard model. While we were building, it was brought to our attention that we had two choices for an air source we could use our original plan with fans or we could use an air blower connected to a box under the table. we decided to stick with a fan system which we would suspend in a box under the table. We built our cardboard model without legs so it just sits on the table and we put the fan system under it. First, we had a short rim around the box and realized we needed a deeper box around it so we cut that out and added it on in order to replicate how we would have room for the fans and electronics in our final model. In order to place the goals flush with the board and extended off the edge of the table so the puck could fall through, we had to cut out a section of the wall surrounding the board and glue the edge of the goal to the outer box. We also taped all seams after glueing them in order to prevent air leakage as best we could.

Once the model was assembled the next step was to test it. It worked ok and we progressed to further planning of our final model discussing every element of the build with our teacher, Mr. D, in order to get his opinion on our plans and what he thinks we should do. Our first step was to design two boards one with a hole circumference of 1/8 inch and one with a hole circumference of 1/16 inch. We did this because originally we had read on an online forum that 1/16 inch would be best and that is what we did for the cardboard board but we hoped that we could improve the airflow with a 1/8 inch hole but we wanted to have the other 1/16 inch design for a back up in case the 1/8 inch didn't work better so we each designed one board and we first cut out the 1/8 inch hole board on the large milling machine in the woodshop to test it we made the board 24" by 48". We decided to keep this board for the final project and moved on to further explore the measurements for the surrounding box including, its depth, width, and length. 

Next, after we had the measurements for the box we started assembly of the box. We used all scrap wood from the wood shop that had already been used for various projects, recycling the wood in a way. We cut down large pieces of scrap in order to form the side walls two being 48" long and the other two being 25" 1/2" to account for the thickness of the 3/4" plywood we were using and skrewed them together using right angle clamps to hold the boards in place while we drilled pilot holes before we put the skrews in. Then we realized that we would need to be able to access the fans for replacement or repair and that skrewing into the board would obstruct the holes and possibly split the thinner 1'2" thick plywood so we decided to attach a rim around the sides of the box. We used two blocks that added up to the thickness we needed for the rim above the board to keep the puck on the table as spacers to make sure we attached the rim at the right depth/height we used wood glue to attach these small pieces of scrap because skrews would have split the wood. We put two on each long side and one in the center of each short side and after these dried we realised that corners were weak and had no support so we went back and put supports in each corner as well as adding more wood on the sides to make a more complete rim for the board for optimal support.  Once we had this done we started figuring out the goal system and we cut a notch out of the shorter side walls like on the cardboard model and built the goals the saame way we did with cardboard using four pieces of wood one for the top, back, and sides leaving the bottom and front open for the puck to go through. We made the opening in the goal five inches wide and one inch high. When we tried glueing the goals on like we did with the cardboard model we realised we would need to add additional supports due to the weight of the goals and we did this by glueing the corners of scrap wood we used as triangular supports under the over hang of the goal and this all was attached with wood glue. 

Now it was time for the final steps of installing the fans and putting legs on it was decided we would put the legs on first we flipped the table upside down and used two 2x4's in each corner using a chunk of 2x4 as a spacer to keep any holes from being covered and clamped the legs in place before drilling pilot holes and skrew ing them into place we then  removed the spacer. Once we had put the legs on we realised that the two 2x4's creating each leg were not completely flush to each other so we used a scrap chunk of 2x4 in each conjunction and clamped the legs tightly together before drilling into each scrap block connecting both 2x4's in the leg to it to hold them together and make the leg construction sturdier as well as appear better, we did this on all the legs. After we had the legs assembled we started testing the fans so we put them in the table while we had it upside down and attached two pieces of wood under them to hold them up at first we were clamping the wood so as not to create any unnecessary holes but we didn't have enough clamps in the size we needed so we did a quick drill job and used shorter skrews and only one on each side of the board then flipped the table over right side up. we then plugged in the fans, vacuumed any excess sawdust out of the holes and turned the fans on they worked but could have been a little stronger. At first, we became worried and tried to think of new ideas for air sources as we had basically no more time before the deadline. Then we realised that the boards were obstructing the suction of the fans and that once we filled in all the empty space surrounding the fans there would be less air pressure escaping the box so we unplugged the fans and flipped the table back over removing the wooden slats supporting the fan and forming a rim around the fans that would support them without blocking the airway and began placing wood in all the empty spaces and covering any gaps with tape. We used multiple layers of tape to cover any empty spaces and filled small holes in the wood that other people had drilled with wood glue. The table is now functional but yet to be painted and prettied up.