Rube Goldberg Machine Post 4: Studio session notes

MARBLE RACE DISCUSSION NOTES 10/05/12

INTRODUCTION:

Class notes for everything that we discussed regarding the marble race. 

I've tidied it up and made it alot more legible than my notes which meant heaps of cutting and pasting into the various sections.  If I've missed anything or managed to get something horribly wrong then please let me know and I'll change it. [1]

MECHANICS:

• Maybe just tilters.  no fancy tricks.
• Simple things that are done well look good.  Complex things that are done half arsed look terrible.  This doesn't mean you you shouldn't try complex things but do it in the back room where people can't see it.
• I liked the idea the other week about staggering it so that we don't all have to deal with pulleys. [2]

COLLABERATION:

• "It's one of the most difficult things to do well and participate in.  even in Weta Workshop which has been doing this for 20 years there are still a dozen people who do all the work and the others leave at quitting time.  Those people that do the slog pull off the best work in the world"
• The collaberation part has been missed by people.  It has happened but not as much as was anticipated by the beginning.
• Everyone is working in teams of two.  Some are not doing as well so joining another group is an option.  This will take the compliment from 2 to 4 people. [3]

THOUGHTS:

 

TIME

• Time being spent.  Many ideas but had to scrap them due to time.
• just difficult finding time to work on it.
• Organise a day everyone stays behind to work on it.  prefer to work on paintings first.
• We've got 3 weeks left.  What we need to do is adapt and adjust the plans.
• "Other classes haven't done this.  The mockups haven't proven anything.  Theres so much other shit that we've got to focus on it.
• "We put it on you because you people are working above the BCT level.  June the 5th is the deadline.  After that 2 weeks are left to include this into the portfolio"

IMPORTANCE

• It is dropping by the wayside in relation to other projects and assignments.

COMPLEXITY

• The height of them is not a good idea and the project hasn't been thought through.  We are the art class, not the engineers.  There are so many different elements to this thing that it is complicating it.  If we use that corner, the danger of things falling, a simple track is boring.
• Keep it against the wall so people can do it against the wall.
• "I'd like to expand it, I think it can be done.  One thing that is important is the rigidity in ancor points which could eliminate all hangings. 
  Stay with the game plan and get them up and running.  Pick out certain ones that are ready to go and can be modified to work together, other ones could be set up on a table" - Eddie
• "I just thought off the table idea instead of scaling the marble race down you could use that part of the room but keep it in the same shape which keeps the distance down but scales the project down.  This gives everyone the wall to work off instead of empty space"
• Each group works on their designs and makes them work.  once they are in physical form the sections can be juggled together.

ISSUES

• I think, for me I got an idea of what I'm doing for my part of it but as a whole I don't think there has been an even contribution to the project.
• Work as usual but pull finger.
• People need to cheer up about it.

CONCERNS:

SCALE

• In all honesty it's not going to work.  The track needs to be smaller or individual pieces need to be bigger.  I think we might have to scale back to make it a viable option. 
• Concerns about how everythings going to connect with the individual projects.  People have done things at home but there are transportation issues.
• Scaling it back would make more problems.
• We have ideas but haven't tested.

OPTIONS TO MOVE IT FORWARDS:

• Each team develops an individual marble race. [4]
• Scrap the project completely and set a more achievable task which will get everyone more motivated in doing it. [5]
• Scaling it back to a corner.  This is a risk that may or may not work since it would be tedious to redesign everything but many people are building in a smaller scale anyway. 
• If we scale it down there is no wall space for people who have used the walls in their plans.
• Hanging things doesn't seem to be working - many of the hanging mockups have destroyed themselves after only a day.
• Building across tables might be an option.  A table in the corner would allow us to block off a square of the classroom for the track.

TUTORSPEAK:

• We may or may not spend time on the marblerace.
   
• "I can't really comment on the project because it's noto clear it's just a matter of connecting them together.  I've worked in a collaberative envirionment.  This project is doomed and that's not coming from a learning perspective.
   
  Collaberative projects will fall over unless things are led with an iron fist.  It can't be a democracy.  A democracy takes too long to make decisions.  I've worked in a collaberative environment with mutiple teams.  The spokespeople communicate with leader on a daily basis and they go away and talk to their teams but as soon as you take your foot of the gas there's no impetus to see the thing through.
   
  From outside looking in it's too complicated with the mechanisms.  You need to know what your doing, Trial and error, the time frame is too short and it's not percieved as important"
   
• "If we were leaning on you about this then you'd be working your asses off but it isn't percieved as important.  At no point have you all sat down and discused this and then gone to the tutors and told them so.  It doesn't matter if there's problems because you fix them but until the people that are in control of it know about it nothing will happen.
   
  If I was you guys in your situation the first thing I'd do is bring them to the tutors and propose a seperate strategy"
   
• "What we're doing here is a job autopsy.  Once the project was completed we'd deliver it.  What we made, how we made it etc.  the biggest lesson we've learnt is that we're having this discussion now and we're not having it two weeks ago"
   
• "Dictatorship.  A good way to do collaberations the opposite is what we have with the class.  A leader is needed.  Everyone wants to have their own opinions and there's alot of people who are sitting in the back.  Not enough of a leader bringing them to the fore"
   
• "The monday morning class is a studio class where you do a project the Thursday is a studio centered around all the subjects"
   
  "The marble race is part of the Portfolio.  There is no way around it.  Why do it?  Because we live in a world where we have to work together.  I think that as a general class we've got the chops to pull it off"

NOTES:

1. There were a lot of people agreeing with each other which is fine in a meeting but rather redundent in text form so I've condensed it down a bit - Just in case you were looking for your bit and couldn't find it
2. Starting from the ceiling each group can have a drop of 200mm before passing it on to the next group)
3. I believe that a few groups were talking about doing this after the meeting.  If anyone wants to merge groups then talk to the tutors
4. If we did this we might need to merge several teams)
5. Alas!  It's part of the portfolio so this doesn't appear to be a real option

LINKS:

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 1

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 2

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 3

Rube Goldberg Machine: Classroom Notes 23/04/12

Classroom notes from Mondays bull session [23/4/12]

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 2

CATAPAULT 

Loading machine with marble:

Loading catapult: Put the marble into the cup via a drop chute or similar which is easy enough.

Achieving correct tension:

Could be setup before the machine has started or we might have a cog that winds the arm back.  Best to arm it before hand unless we’re using multiple marbles that are going to be following each other.  In that case something that is able to reload itself is going to be a priority.

Trigger mechanism:

At it’s most simple a piece of string could restrain the arm of the catapult and, at the proper time the string is either snapped by a blade or burnt by a candle

Once the string has been broken the candle will need to be doused.  So ideally what we need is a conveyor belt that stops when it is time to burn the string and starts when the string is gone.   It will be a good look if we manage to douse the flame in a candle of water.

We could use the trigger string to act as a halter for the candle if it were to be attached to a toy car and thus achieve movement.  Once the string has gone then the car is free to travel upon it’s merry way and sink in a watery grave.

PIPE AND CUP

Image 1:
Ball enters piping and gathers speed which throws it into the cup.

Image 2:The cup is balanced on an axle and the weight of the marble dislodges the cup which moves it down and the counterweight up.

Image 3:When the cup reaches it tips over, allowing the marble to continue on its way

EGG CARTON CAR

String attached to both ends of toy car.

The forward one is attached to a weigh while the rear one is just long enough to allow the car to tip over the edge of the track and once again allows the marble to roll free

PAPER STAIRS

Normal fold:
Rigidly folded with walls on each side
V type fold:
Doesn’t really work for gentle slopesU type fold:The paper here is barely folded at all.  If suspended it would be at the mercy of any errant breeze.  But if used as a tipping platform then it could work quite well.

 

BOOT SWING

Rear string is held at the ready

The string is severed though means unknown at this point.

The boot swings forwards, kicking off the next part of the machine.  If a swing like this is to be the final part of the machine then we might give it a very long swing but boots are not aerodynamic at the best of times and the bigger swing that we have the more chance of the boot twisting in midkick.

The boot might also be needed to weighted in order to provide some real power.


LINKS:
Rube Goldberg Machine Post 1

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 2

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 3 (23/04/12)

Rube Goldberg Machine Notations

INTRODUCTION:

Upon viewing this page you, the casual Internet user, might well be saying to yourself

"Warte eine Minute! Wo ist der verrückten verrückten Humor? Ist das BloggerEntsendung seiner Alphabet Herausforderung Beiträge nicht in Ordnung? Ich kann nichtdamit umgehen! Jemand Herunterfahren des Internet!" [1]

By happy chance you'll have just enough time to read the rest of this introduction before the orderlies put the straitjacket back on and your doctor reconsiders allowing you access to the outside world.  

The explanation for this out of sequence posting is that the class is currently making Rube Goldberg Machines as I mentioned in passing in a previous post [2]

What follows is some gathered from a few places, Wikipedia, Grant and some stuff that was written up on the board in class.  It's posted here because it's too big to post into the Facebook Group.

....

Actually forget all that

INTRODUCTION (REDUX)

Here are some notes for the Rube Goldberg Machine.  Posted here due to it being way to big to fit into the Facebook Group.  Naturally I have included my own notes for the intellectual which may be found in its usual place at the end of the posting.

Rube Goldberg Machine notations.

Room Measurements:

• Window wall to door wall 5.4m pillar to pillar
• Solid wall 5m pillar to pillar
• Pillar to light rail 1.8m
• Light rail to light rail 2m
• Average Marble weight 15gm – Variations of 0.5mm to 1mm

Materials:

• Polystyrene
• plastic milk bottles
• Cardboard
• Paper (naturally)
• Glass
• Recycled objects
• Fire
• String
• Magnets

Propulsion:

• Mentos/Coke:
  Adding Mentos to Coke will result in a very powerful fountain about a meter high. But this height is not uniform and it is best used as a finale [3]
• Candle/Steam:
  With much of the track being made of paper using this might require a wooden or plastic housing to be added to the track.
• Pendulum:
  Can be used to knock the next step over, a counterweight or, if attached to a threaded screw system it might unscrew itself [4]
• Counterweighted cranes:
  At it's heart this is a pivot and screw the making of which is, thankfully, relatively simple.
• Archimedes Screw:
  Useful for bringing the marbles up a slope. [5]

Misc:

• Trapdoors:
  For multiple marbles on the run.
• Plastic Bags
  Could be used as a catching device if the catapult idea goes ahead.  Might also work as a track for the marble or even as a hanger [6] for the larger sections of the track
• Water or similar liquid:
  Water would work as a weight that raised the marble up if it were slowly emptied from the container and vice versa.
• Swings and roundabouts:
  Because everything's better with a swing. [7]
• Catapult and catching system

NOTES:

1. "Wait a minute!  where's the zany madcap humour?  Is this blogger posting his Alphabet challenge posts out of order? I can't deal with this!  Someone shut down the Internet!"  You might also have time to think "Hey. Warum denke ich auf Deutsch?" if the orderlies have lost the key to your cell yet again.
2. You don't need to go looking for it or anything.  Just imagine that you remember me mentioning it in an offhand and casual manner.
3. Apparently Diet Coke works best which is good because Coca Cola hasn't ever found anyone prepared to drink the stuff
4. Achieving a kind of Nirvana I suppose.  There are a shortage of pendulum jokes on the Internet but the good news is there there is an even greater shortage of pendulum rule 34's
5. Probably not the use he envisioned when he ran around shouting Eureka! (Bonus points if you spotted the intentional mistake)
6. You know, for hanging things.
7. Don't believe me?  Try dumping someone while on a swing.  It can't be done

LINKS:

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 2

Rube Goldberg Machine Post 3 (23/04/12)