Snowflake Tensegrity Structure

Description

Build your own “floating” snowflake today! This “floating” snowflake is surrounded by gentle waves that look just like fresh snow. Combined with iron colored chains that link together, but don’t actually touch, it’s an architectural marvel that is sure to impress any snowflake lover. 

Made in collaboration with Chloe 

Lesson Plan/Activity

With a partner, you will design and create a single custom Tensegrity Structure of equal complexity or greater as the tables depicted above (as determined and approved by the instructor).

Parts List

Assembly Instructions Section: 
 

Tools:

- Small screwdriver with a head slightly smaller than the hook

- 6 hooks for screwing 

- Fishing wire

- Hammers

- Sandpaper or shavers

- 2 small metal rods (1 cm long)

- clamps

- scissors

- pliers

- cutters

Steps:

1. Step 1
   1. Take your printed bottom base, with the snowflake facing upwards, and one of the base pegs

1. Insert the larger part of the peg into the middle hole of the base and make sure that the smaller part of the peg is facing up as well.

1. The bottom of the peg and base should be parallel to one another

Bottom Base and Peg.gif

1. If peg does not fit in the hole:
   1. Use a broken pair of cutters to shave down the inside of the hole

Shaving.gif

1. Step 2
   1. Take one of your printed bases, with the snowflake facing down, and one of the base pegs
   2. Repeat step 1.2
2. Step 3
   1. Place both of the bases next to each other, with the flat side on the table, then grab your hammer and screwdriver.
   2. Grab the bottom base
      1. Using the screwdriver, place it in the center of one of the outer ovals of the snowflake
      2. Gently hit the screwdriver with the hammer so that a little indentation is formed
      3. Repeat steps 3.2.2 - 3.2.3, this time skipping over the adjacent oval and placing it on the next one
      4. Repeat step 3.4

Base holes.mov 

1. Grab the top base
   1. Identify the three small indents on the snowflake-less side of the top base
   2. Place the screwdriver in the center of one of the indents
   3. Gently hit the screwdriver with the hammer 1-2 times to form a slightly larger indent
   4. Repeat steps 3.3.2 - 3.3.3 with the two other indents you identified in step 3.3.1

1. Step 4
   1. Grab your 6 hooks, Using the holes made in step 3, screw the hooks into individual holes, and tighten them until they are fixed in place. Make sure that the hooks are perpendicular to the base

Adding Screws to Base.gif

1. Turn the hooks so that the side of them face the center of the base. Do this for the hooks on both the bottom and top bases.

1. Step 5
   1. Grab your fishing line and scissors
   2. To connect the bases together:
      1. Cut 3, 12 inch strings of fishing line

1. To connect the middle chains together:
   1. Tie a figure eight knot on fishing line and cut it 6 inches up from the knot

1. Make sure to pull your knot tight!

PullingKnotTight.gif

1. Step 6
   1. Grab your middle chain pieces and 2, 1 cm long, pieces of metal rod
   2. Insert the wires into the holes in the middle chain halves

Adding the Pegs to Middle Chain.gif

1. Position your middle chain with pegs in it so that it is looped through both base chains

1. Put a metal rod in each of the small holes on the bottom of the middle chain
   1. There should be 2 holes

Hammering in the metal rods

1. Take the other half of the middle chain and connect it to make a full middle chain

Connecting the Middle Chain.gif

ClosingMiddleChain.gif

1. Step 7
   1. Grab the 6 inch fishing line and the chains
   2. Loop the line through the middle chain so that the knot is on the outside

1. Then, pull the line through the hole on the base chain and tie a loose knot that rests right on top of the chain

1. To tighten the knot, push the middle chain and base together, the distance between the inside of both chains should be about 1 cm.
2. Tie another knot above the knot from the last step, when fully tightened they should be about 0.5 cm apart

1. Next, pull the line through the hole on the other base chain and up through the middle chain
2. Tie a knot that rests right on top of the chain
   1. Follow step 7.3.1 to tighten the knot

1. Step 8
   1. Get your bases and chains
   2. Line up the chain with the red line shown below, parallel to the blue line that connects two of the hooks

1. Insert the smaller end of the base peg into the larger hole of the base chain

1. Press it down hard enough so that it is fully inserted while being careful not to crack the chain or peg
2. If the hole is too small, carefully enlarge it with a small drill

1. Repeat for both chain and base combos
2. Step 9
   1. Grab the 12 inch strings of fishing line and your top base
   2. Loop the end of one of the strings through one of the hooks on the top base
   3. Tie a figure eight knot around the hook you looped the string through in step 9.2
      1. Follow the gif below to tie a figure eight knot

How to Tie a Figure Eight Knot.gif

1. Repeat steps 9.1-9.3 2 more times with the remainder of the strings

1. Step 10
   1. Grab everything you have assembled so far
   2. Stand it up straight, one base on the bottom and one on top with the chains in the middle

1. Line up the hooks on the top base with the hooks on the bottom base
2. Connect the strings hanging from the hooks on the top base with the hooks on the bottom base

1. Tie a figure eight knot to connect them
2. Pull tight
   1. Distance from top base to bottom base should be around 15 cm 

1. You are done!
    

Note about the assembly instructions

The instructions were copy and pasted from a Google Doc so a lot of the formatting is messed up. To see the Google Doc, click here.

Design Choices

Version 2.1

Color Change

We originally used silk silver, but had problems printing our bases with it. We came to the conclusion that silky filaments are cursed and we highly suggest that you don’t use a silky filament for this! Therefore, we changed our filament to one that printed better instead.

Version 2.0

Base chain

The first edit we made to the base chain was changing the total size from 4 by 2.6 cm to 6 by 3.9 cm. Next, we changed the size of the string hole from 0.08 cm to 1.3 cm. After that, we changed the width of the peg hole from 0.4 to 0.6 cm.

Middle chains

The first edit we made to the middle chain was changing the total dimensions from 4 by 2.6 cm to 6 by 3.9 cm. Then, we changed the direction of which way we cut the chain. We originally split the chain in half vertically, but realized that splitting it horizontally would be structurally sounder. We needed a new way to connect both halves so we added in two new holes, both of which are 0.51cm deep. After that, we made a 0.13cm hole cutting through the chain vertically to thread the string through.

Middle peg

The only change we made to the middle peg was to delete it entirely. We realized that using a small metal rod instead of a peg would hold the two halves of the middle chain together much better.

Base peg - scale to accommodate chain size change

The edits made to the base peg were to change the bigger part from 1.37cm to 1.36cm and the smaller part from 0.57 to 0.56 cm. The reason we did this was because the pegs need to be slightly smaller than the holes to fit inside of them, and we forgot to account for this in our first version.

Base

Our one addition to the bases were guide dents to make it easier to put the hooks in the right spot.

Version 1.0

How we made it work

Our version 1.0 had a lot of problems. The middle chains ended up being too small, so we were barely able to achieve tensegrity. We had to hot glue the middle chain together because the middle peg was too small to work. We also had to hook the chains together instead of using string like we originally wanted to.

Changes we made while making it on Solidworks

We added a snowfall-like pattern to the bases to compliment the snowflake theme. To do this, we used the freeform tool to make wavy lines across the surface of the base.

Initial Sketches

For the base chain, we were originally planning on making it boxier, but decided to make it more circular to make it more aesthetic.