Scratch Build – In Progress Project Pyramid

design thinking

Some more inside/progress on the exterior.

One of the things we (my wife and me) wanted to let it look like was "old". Which means no slick pyramid as in straight plates and looks.
To achieve this effect she came up with the idea of using the foam/elastic rubber and doublesided tape! for decoration.

first taping of the foam and applying the alabastine


Removing the tape to make room for the doublesided tape :


Finished pieces with the doublesided tape-pieces :




Spray-painted pieces :


Buttons painted with copper color paint from Christmas sale!! Actually several layers : primer/brown paint/copper paint/lock paint


First pieces attached to the plates :



Some more pics of the building layers :





Thats it for now. Still some more ideas to come for lights. As we discovered that the wooden sticks give a nice red color on the markings if you backlight it with a coldcathode (white) light.

 

Wooo, very much liking the detail you're adding!

 

looking really nice! I very much like your home-made hotwire replacement

 

Thats looking really nice!

Have some stars aswell...

 

nice goa'uld mothership
the mothorized side destroys the overall look of the ship

 

redesign

TnX all for comment!!....
@widmod : true ...........

Been thinkering on the problem but haven' t found a good solution for it.

And as for some self-criticism me and my wife had a good look at it.......both we agreed its not as it should be.
massive problems on getting angles straight, deformation of the foam, etc.
And i know myself.......in the end i will hate it if it's not as i want....

So its back to the drawing board. We will keep the design itself, but probably with different materials, also the side plates will be removed and for 3 sides i gonna use a solid acrylic construction. Plates glued together i think to give it a more rigid construction.

Any suggestions welcome!!

 

perhaps magnets instead of the motor?

 

i'm probaby too late, i only just saw this thread, but this mechanism would move your panel vertically a bit then continue diagonally. A little grease would be needed on the central bracket so the cd-rom tray-arm-gear-thing can slide as the panel moves vertically. The tracks which are on each side of course would also need to be greased. Alloy, steel, acrylic or other plastic would all be good enough materials to make it out of, plastic on metal slides very nicely tho, not much grease needed that way.

 

Kewl drawing!!.....

Your not to late....

Your proposal is the same as radodrill pointed out. But its probably a good solution. The only thing on using guides is that they have to have the same angle as the top back panel. I dont know if it would slam in the side plates on first movement if the angle doesnt correspond to the guides angle. I gonna make a test setting for it, and see if it works. Tnx alot for the input!!

 

yes, i've drawn radodrill's idea and yeah, the top/middle meeting point needs both panels to be cut at 45', so they meet vertically, same as the start of the tracks that the guides run along. I think the panel should be arcylic, say 3mm, and it should actually contact the top/middle metting point and the 4 guides on the moveable panel (2 on each side) should also be in contact - so thats 5 points that should be in alignment and greased - in reality tho, even if only two tracks & guides are in alignment with the top/middle meeting point you should have a fairly smooth operation. So there wouldn't actually be a gap at the top - no clearance req.

The pic isn't perfect and doesn't show that the vertical parts at the start of the tracks need to be tall enough so that the moveable panel moves high enough to clear the top of the pyramid, so if you use 3mm arcylic then the panel only has to go out say 5mm.

So when the cd-rom mech. starts pushing, the moveable panel would slide up vertically on the tracks AND the top/middle meeting point at the same time, and after 3mm of vertical movement, the moveable panel continues to rise vertically to 5mm without contacting the top of the pyramid, then the moveable panel moves diagonally with 1mm clearance from the top of the pyramid.

If you make it like in my diagram the diagonall movement will be limited to approx half the height of the moving panel, longer movement can be had but i'd have to change a couple of things, not to mention the panel will be alot more flimsy.

edit: to reduce flimsyness the round guides need to be a fairly snug fit in the tracks, only the tiniest amount of clearance, not too tight that the cd-rom mech. can't move the panel, but the more clearance the more flimsy the panel, it can wobble when it's extended.

also, my 5mm estimate will give ya .53mm clearance (checked on the calculator ) if you want 1mm clearance you need 5.66mmof vertical travel in the tracks.

 

Kewl!!................i see u did alot of thinking about it.

About the vertical movement : its way more, its not only the 3 mm acrylic but also the foam that has to be cleared, all in all its about 1,5 cm upward movement.
Also the transport mechanism itself is fixed and the moving plate has to be somehow "detached" from it with a sliding mechanism. Basicly i used your idea now. 2 side guides and on the top probably also 2. I made a test setup and it seems to work. But i have to wait till i get the new acrylic plates and determine the upward movement.

Here are some pics of the new construction :

The fixed mechanic i have moved to the "bottom" :


The movable part where the acrylic plate will be attached to. I used 2 axes to slide with the fixed bottom part.


Both parts attached to each other


The guide for the movable part, it also has a small transport-wheel which i am not sure if i gonna use it


The upper guide as its now, this one i have to replace with the 120 degrees guide, i have to see if i have room for 2 guides.


A test guide which should go on both sides of the lower transport. (bad cut i know).


Did test this setup and it slides oke!!......even with the bad cut.!!

 

very kewl indeed! i didn't realise the panel had to clear foam aswell it's awesome that you've made a working prototype! the axels are excellent - they look like steel hinge/support things from glass doors of a cabinet? perfect!
that cut in the acrylic is awesome it's seriously awesome that it's working like this tho, it will be very excellent once it's complete i haven't spent much time on it, maybe 10 minutes on the design, and i enjoy designing stuff

 

The "steel hinge/support things" are actually a rip out of an old casette/tape-player....

Seems i have a tendency to rip old stuff for doing these things..........

To give a impression whot i meant with the deformation here is a pic of the plates now after a week. I got no idea why they actually are bending in such a mannor. This is not a distortion u see in the pic the plates are really curved now.

 

ill have a stab at that: maybe the glue/double sided tape has shrunk a little as it dried, "pulling" parts of one side of the thin panel together, effectively trying to reduce the length of one side of the panel, which bends the panel.

possible solution? maybe heat the opposite side of the panel a little, the side with no foam or double-sided tape, and once the panel is warmed up, bend the panel slightly the other way. Let the panel cool while bent the other way, and see how it sits once it's cooled down - it's probably gonna take a couple of attempts or so to get it right, and you probably wanna experiment with some scrap/offcuts first!

 

dunno...............could be that the plastic foil is shrinking and cosing the deformation.
i added the foil to easy remove it from the plates, perhaps a bad idea to plastic foil the plates.
As i aint going to use these plates, i probably be more cousious on applying adhesive foil to the new plates (still waiting for their arrivel).

 

Gup nice to see Pyramid Project is still in progress...

btw. when finished i wait for a divx evening invitation to your bunker.
hehe...........


maybe cool beer too ?

 

TnX schlange......

if it ever gets finished i throw a party...

Beer is always on ........perfect draft...........

 

new stuff

Last weekend the new acrylic plates arrived, these are cut withe 120 degrees angle.
I glued them together and they give a much better look.



I already have an idea about a new attach system for the solid construction it is now.
The only detached part is the moving plate.

On first tries with the proposed system of guides it doesnt work due to wrong thinking. You have to think 3 dimensions.
Although the problem would be solved for clearing the backplate it will not work for the left and right plate. The moving plate will hit the side plates.
So only option is to move first horizontally then vertically.
I tried several option on the mechanics with transmissions from several cd-drives. (all in all about 10 drives, i am asthonished about the many different types used in cd-rom players).



As it turns out i cant use this for horizontally and vertically movement, laws of physics will prevent it to use same drive for both movements (a pyramid shape prevents hor/vert movement with transmissions due to forces on the transmision)

So after lotsa thinking i thought about KISS.

The basic idea with the guides was good for the backplate, why doesnt it work for the side plates?....The upward movement makes it impossible. So.........why don't prevent the upward movement?

That solves the problem!! I hope....

Basicly what the idea is now:

Let the motor run and pull up the transport bar, but dont let the moving plate go up with it.
Use guides to make the horizontal movement and after horizontal movement is finished then lock to the transport bar and pullup.




These guides will get a lock system which will grap as soon as hor. movement is finished.

As a side note.............the commell MB died out on me........this sux really. Luckily i could get a replacement for it. I hope things turns out as i want.

Design wise we got some new ideas for the material. Will post any ideas/progress on it. But first will be finishing the mechanics.

 

new mechanics!!

Finally!!....................After 1 month of completly getting nuts about the mechanics. I have a working system. I had to redo or alter so much stuff to even get a stable working version. Perhaps in my younger days i had better paid attention on mechanics lessons at school. Here is a summary on how it works now :

1 guide for the upper part with a triangle shaped support.
2 guides for the lower part
2 guides for the forcing of the horizontal movement
new stop-sensors.

how it works :

the transport bar moves upwards.
then it will push the upper and lower guides in horizontal way.
when the max guide position is reached it will go on with the vertical movement till stop point set by the sensors.
easy huh.....

Here are some pics and a clip as i think that a movie shows more then words:

Guide Designs

Triangle upper support

lower guides

Transport bar with upper guide

detail of upper guide

Side guides for forcing horizontal movement

Sensors


Overview

Cover plate for the axes and sensors as this is visible when plate runs up.


The mechanics in ACTION!!


Thats it for now. Still have to work on some details for the mechanics but hee......a mod is never finished i believe.!!...

 

cool mechanisim, it looks very serious and it was from a quick cd rom i see