Other Projects

Projects too small or strange for categories

The inspiration for this project, made from metal

Simple Decorative Orrery

Inspired by a decoration in a friend's house, I wanted to make my own. I laser-cut the rings, bought a small wooden ball, and found a stand from another broken decoration. The rings spin around each other, making a dynamic decoration that looks metallic but feels like wood.

My version, made from wood painted to look like metal, and copper nails.

The Acorn

A hut made by jabbing sticks into the ground to form a circle, and weaving torn lengths of tablecloths and sheets between the sticks

Tiny Guillotine

This is a guillotine that will be used to cut vegetables, cheese, and fruit. No fingers. A marble is glued to each side of the blade. The marbles slide down PVC pipes that stand vertically, bringing the blade down with them.

Blade with marbles

Weight was added by placing bolts on top of the marbles

Unfinished stand

Guillotine

The bolts, marbles, and blade broke apart, so I used a 3D printed part. I tested two different concepts--one with a single structure and the other with two identical pieces. The cylinders at the ends serve the same purpose as the marbles in the first prototype.

Problem with single-piece concept: Though this design works well and is strong enough to take the force of a drop, it reduces the distance that the blade can cut, because the plastic holder is thicker than the blade and gets caught on the object that is being cut.

(Top pictures)

Problems with the two-piece concept: This design fixes the issue with the one-piece design, because it holds the blade only on the edges. However, it also makes it more difficult to make the trajectory of the blade straight, since there isn't a rigid edge connecting the two pieces, and is weaker for the same reason.

(Bottom pictures)

Slot for blade on underside

Holes for weight bolts on top

Completed blade holder

Windchime

I saved five aluminum tubes from the dumpster and finally decided to use them, to make a wind chime. I set the tones to the 5 notes from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind because I felt like it, and used a bit of scrap wood for the top and clapper.

Tubes and wood

Top

Clapper

Braided white and brown strings

The finished product turned out really well. Balancing everything was difficult, but I was able to use a compass to keep all the tubes and strings equally spaced. Right, inscribing five equally-spaced points into a circle.

Windchimes

PVC Pan Flute

This flute uses 1/2 inch diameter PVC pipes of different lengths to make a full (slightly out-of-tune) C scale. That means that the notes it plays are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C an octave above the first C. I calculated the lengths of the pipes with an equation that uses the pipe diameter, the speed of sound, and the frequency of the note. The pipes don't have any mouth piece, so they can only be played by hitting the bottom or top of the pipe or by blowing horizontally across the openings of each pipe.

Hand Cannon

Made for Halloween 2020 to safely toss candy at children. Built from a mattress spring, a cardboard mail tube, rope, and mail tube caps of different sizes. The larger cap has a hole in it and fits into the tube securely. The smaller cap is attached to the rope. Both caps are attached to the spring, with the rope running inside the spring. The entire system goes into the mail tube. Candy goes inside and rests on the small cap. The rope is pulled, which compresses the spring. When the rope is let go, candy shoots out.

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