Plastic Gondola

Assignment: make a vehicle for 3 eggs that will either protect or destroy them when they smash into a wall at the end of a zipline journey. I made my gondola to destroy the eggs.

After finding an orange juice bottle made of PETE, I made two sketches for egg vehicles: one that would save the eggs and another that would destroy them. I opted for the destructive vehicle.

I used PETE, Polypropylene, and HDPE in my plastic gondola, as well as LDPE for a cape.

LDPE mechanical component bag

PETE orange juice bottle

PP coffee cup

HDPE Sprouts produce bag

Starting with a PETE bottle, I carved three holes for the eggs and tested the sizing with an actual egg. I then covered the bottle with a HDPE bag to make pockets for the eggs with a little less than half of them sticking out. The idea is that the the part of the eggs sticking out from the bottle will hit the wall and be crushed.

I tried several different techniques before the HDPE bag to keep the eggs at the front of the bottle: placing pieces of PETE inside the bottle to push the eggs forward, tying bags crossways through the bottle to act as a hammock for the eggs, and bending plastic to act as a spring to push the eggs out. But nothing I did was secure enough to keep the eggs from falling into the bottle, so I used the HDPE bags to create pockets.

I wrapped more HDPE bags around the bottle to tie down the main bag. The pieces also help keep the eggs inside the pockets. I tied a polypropylene ring into the top using extra material from the HDPE bags to act as a hook.

The final product has a cape and some sharpie accents. The hook can be rotated so that the eggs face towards the wall.

When I placed the eggs inside the pockets, I used the wrapped sections of HDPE bags to cover the eggs to keep them from falling out before they hit the wall. The polypropylene hook was too brittle and broke before it was used. Luckily, there was a loop of HDPE bag that could be used to attach the gondola to the wire.

The eggs were all completely smashed when they hit the wall. My gondola was a success.

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