![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I had been working on and off on the dandelion / koosh project, but recently I've had the urge to just get it done. So for some reason I'm blogging about it instead of doing it. Oh right:
(1) If you want to help me finish it today or tomorrow night, I'd love the help
(2) If you have a truck, van, or other large vehicle (or a zipcar account that would let you borrow said vehicle for a few hours) I'd be very interested in using the vehicle to transport the koosh for a test run at a swimming pool, Golden Gate Park, or some other such place.
Here's how it's been coming along:
I have the core completely done. Each pentagonal piece of the dodecahedral core will have 23 pool noodles attached and secured to it. That way, the koosh can be broken to 12 pieces for easy transport and can be assembled on-site in around an hour with 60 zipties. It turns out that, with a tensile strength of 75 pounds and low elasticity, zip ties are actually a source of structural integrity in large numbers.
Here's what the construction process looks like:
The core is shaped like a dodecahedron. Each piece of the core is assembled from 3 pentagonal pieces, which are laser cut from 3/16" Lauan plywood and then glued together in a stack:
The three pieces are slightly different sizes so that
(1) The edges of the pentagon are at the right angle to interface flat against the neighboring pentagon.
(2) The holes for the pool noodles are angled in the direction that the pool noodle needs to go.
The pieces are painted with exterior primer and deck paint to add some amount of waterproofing. Painting them got a hell of a lot faster once I realized this little hack with a paint roller, which happened to be just the right size:
The pieces are then pulled together using slit pieces of vinyl tubing as spacers and zip ties attached to screw eyes as a source of compression:
I modeled the final appearance of the koosh with a small model. Now it's assembly time:
(1) If you want to help me finish it today or tomorrow night, I'd love the help
(2) If you have a truck, van, or other large vehicle (or a zipcar account that would let you borrow said vehicle for a few hours) I'd be very interested in using the vehicle to transport the koosh for a test run at a swimming pool, Golden Gate Park, or some other such place.
Here's how it's been coming along:
I have the core completely done. Each pentagonal piece of the dodecahedral core will have 23 pool noodles attached and secured to it. That way, the koosh can be broken to 12 pieces for easy transport and can be assembled on-site in around an hour with 60 zipties. It turns out that, with a tensile strength of 75 pounds and low elasticity, zip ties are actually a source of structural integrity in large numbers.
Here's what the construction process looks like:
The core is shaped like a dodecahedron. Each piece of the core is assembled from 3 pentagonal pieces, which are laser cut from 3/16" Lauan plywood and then glued together in a stack:
The three pieces are slightly different sizes so that
(1) The edges of the pentagon are at the right angle to interface flat against the neighboring pentagon.
(2) The holes for the pool noodles are angled in the direction that the pool noodle needs to go.
The pieces are painted with exterior primer and deck paint to add some amount of waterproofing. Painting them got a hell of a lot faster once I realized this little hack with a paint roller, which happened to be just the right size:
The pieces are then pulled together using slit pieces of vinyl tubing as spacers and zip ties attached to screw eyes as a source of compression:
I modeled the final appearance of the koosh with a small model. Now it's assembly time:
