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3D PRINTING: MOON WHEEL
This 3D PRINTING MOON WHEEL project was learnt during my time as a student at 3dsense Media School which I have documented my process below. We were required to 3d print any kind of toy/ kinetic sculpture that involved any kind of moving mechanism.
This project was inspired by a very surreal and mesmerising lucid dream i had of the moon where I saw it rotating around me, where I feel strong gusts of wind every time it past me and even see Earth and some other planets from far. I wanted to find a way to remember this dream and thus tried my best to capture the essence of it in this project. The original wheel design was by Holz Mechanik.
FINISHED LOOK
FINISHED MECHANISM
PROCESS JOURNAL: BUILDING MECHANISM AND ASSEMBLING PARTS
Wheel design drawn on Fusion
3d printed wheel
Wheel design drawn on Fusion
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Original idea for mechanism done on Fusion. The two wheels would have one way bearings attached to each wheel, opposite to one another. They would be rotating freely in opposite directions on a shaft to create the illusion effect.
The initial idea for this was to have it powered by a motor attached to a cam. The pendulum (attached to the same shaft as the two wheels) would swing freely and the cam (powered by the motor) would rotate and catch onto the pendulum to bring it up and drop it to swing freely again, this would happen every 2 seconds.
When the pendulum swings, the shaft rotates, which rotates the two wheels attached to their individual ball bearings. A weight would be attached to the back of the pendulum, generating energy when it rotates the two wheels, allowing them to rotate freely.
> Video showing how the cam, pendulum and shaft mechanisms would have worked on fusion.
< Manually testing the ball bearings in the two wheels to see if the wheels could rotate freely.
New pendulum with weights at the back
Testing new pendulum
Removing old pendulum and making a test for the new one
New pendulum with weights at the back
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However after printing all my parts and assembling them, I realised that when the cam made a really loud banging noise every time it catches onto the pendulum. The pendulum would also consistently hit the side of my box meaning that it did not swing enough to generate enough energy to let the two wheels rotate freely.
I decided to remove the motor and cam and change the mechanism of my pendulum completely. I extended the length of my pendulum out of my box so that it could make bigger swings. This worked really well and definitely did not have the loud banging noise from before. The wheels also rotated really nicely creating the illusion that I wanted.
> The new mechanism and pendulum.
PROCESS JOURNAL: AIRBRUSHING
< Airbrushing a gradient on the backing board and pendulum.
Deciding placements of planets
Deciding final colours of planets
Colour and placement of planets I decided to go with
Deciding placements of planets
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< Testing the whole mechanism after air brushing and glueing everything to confirm if the mechanism is working well and the colours match.
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