Forums > Technical Discussion > Flipping through the Design book

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PeleBRONZE Member
the henna lady
6,193 posts
Location: WNY, USA


Posted:
I know Adam has one, and others who actually make toys to sell, but how many of you firey peeps have a design book?I can imagine pj's and adam's have exact measurements right down to screw size, mine are less exact, to say the least.So what is in yours? How precise are you?What is your favorite design and do you have one that is giving you troubles?For me a collapsable fan is slapping me silly, one I can just flick open they way you can an oriental fan. Also I want to make a skip it, but the issue is that the wick would be beaten to shreds after one go with it. Oh, skip-it was this toy when I was younger, coming back today...it's a ring that can slip over your arm or ankle with a short length of tube or "string" with a weight at the end. The weight usually rolls over the ground, reducing wear and tear, and the object is that you spin it while on one ankle and jump it with the other. I think it'd be cool for wraps and in a jump rope routine, as well as an interesting version of hand held poi. I just an stumped at the wick preservation area of this. Any ideas are welcome on collapsable fans or wick beating.Anyway, I thought this would be a good place to beg for help on stumped designs and maybe brainstorm or share some new ones.------------------Pele Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK


AdeSILVER Member
Are we there yet?
1,897 posts
Location: australia


Posted:
Sorry Pele, can't help with the wick preservation, except to suggest an experiement with glue on the wick to see what happens? I saw a program on tv during the week that featured a guy using fire whips, so it must be possible to make something that can withstand such a battering - good luck.I also have a design book - though it's more of an ideas, snippit, design book winkWhat's in it?+ name ideas+ poi head designs (to the millimetre) and my opinions on why they worked/didn't work/questions to find out etc. I often find working through a design on paper helps me refine it and iron out the bugs before spending money on construction! + song/tune breakdowns (to the exact second)etc....I also have several other design books for other areas of interest, that are not poi.My main design problem, to share with you all, was last weekend - how to attach a solid rubber ball to my chains and attach 4 ribbons of between 1 and 1.75 metres (and between 1 and 4cm wide) to the ball! I solved this problem by heating a coathanger and poking it through the balls. Then using a thin wire, threaded this through the middle of the balls, so I ended up with two external points of attachment (Can you picture it?). One with a swivel on it (attached while threading) to attach to the chains, and the other to attach the ribbins to. I then sewed the ribbons on to the wire. I initially started with ribbons that were 3m in length - but they were just too long to be useful. Half that length is much better!Though I'd love to hear about other HOPers who are using ribbon at the moment (a search on the archives reveals little discussion of ribbons - especially length).I guess one of my other design problems, stewing away in my head, is about LEDs and fishing floats. I think it should be possible to make a LED construct and then insert it into ready make clear plastic bubble floats, but I haven't had the time to pursue this one yet. Any fishos on the list made the connection between our fishing toys and twirling? I'm saving a lot of money by raiding my tackle box winkThanks Pele, you've got me thinking as usual!Ade

adamricepoo-bah
1,015 posts
Location: Austin TX USA


Posted:
Actually, I don't have a book per se--all my ideas are in my head. I do have a web page, which documents most of my designs, but doesn't get specific about every last dimension. I'm also tweaking my designs a lot, so if I had a book, it would have a lot of cross-outs.A friend of mine has a fire-fan, and he has the same problem: how to keep it open. I've thought about it, and came up with three possibilities. Now, these are specific to his fan--yours might be different, and they wouldn't apply. His fan consists of 5 straight rods with J-hooks at the bottom. A machine screw goes through the J-hooks, acting as the hinge. Their are two tiers of chains joining the rods together, and a roll of wicking at the tip of each rod.One concept was to put a large washers on the screw, outside the outermost rods, and run a spring from a chain attachment point on one side, under the hinge and between the washers (which act as keepers for the spring) and back up the other side to the opposite chain attachment point. This would be pretty easy to implement.Another concept would take more doing. It works sort of like an umbrella. It would involve affixing a small tang to the middle rod, near the hinge, and attaching levers to the outmost rods on pivots. The levers would be joined together, also by a pivot. The lever-pair would be pushed over the tang to lock the fan open, and hiked off it to let the fan close. I realize this is hard to visualize based on this description.Finally, you might be able to put friction washers between each rod. That would just make the fan tend to stick in whatever position it's in.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy


pjmember
277 posts
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA


Posted:
Like Adam, my design book is mostly in my head. I *promise* that someday soon I'll get photographs of all my toys up on the web, along with detail shots so y'all can replicate them if you like.-p.

Knagimember
397 posts
Location: Brunswick, Ohio


Posted:
even think of duck tape? I dunno how or why it doesn't burn up but the girls from texas had there poi heads wrapped in it, and they burned for along time didn't get a chance to see what it looked like afterwords. I'm getting some killer idea's for a character and some new fire toys :P none of which I have been able to even begin hammering out. One is for a large hammer type thing that I'll swing around for a bit then slam on the ground to produce a large fireball, and to complement that I thought up some fire boots. but I basicly want them to hold fuel until I'm rdy to finish and use them as a finishing burst of flame at the same time nailing the hammer into the ground to surrond myself with fireballs "ummm no really I'm not a pyro" need to think up some way of A: holding the fuel safley in the boots B: launching the fuel C: lighting them together. any idea's would rock.

We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim MorrisonIt's going to come from a direction you didn't predict at a moment of chaos which you didn't see coming. -- NYC


adamricepoo-bah
1,015 posts
Location: Austin TX USA


Posted:
Knagi--My suggestion would be to get your affairs in order before attempting anything like you describe.Make sure to perform the stunt in an open field without any bystanders nearby.In every one of your posts, you gin up some perfectly suicidal idea.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy


Knagimember
397 posts
Location: Brunswick, Ohio


Posted:
None of my idea's have any thought of suicide. I'm just a very extreme person. Looking for new ways of doing things, the only thing that limits what you can do is your imagination. And I belive with the right construction flaming boots could be pulled off without the smell of burning flesh :PBTW: I do have my limits fire breathing isn't for me, thus the drive to come up with a controled fireball. I won't try anything that will end in a human torch.

We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim MorrisonIt's going to come from a direction you didn't predict at a moment of chaos which you didn't see coming. -- NYC


melissaBRONZE Member
member
156 posts
Location: madagascar, USA


Posted:
sketch books are a handy item to have around, i have kept my designs over the years and it is wonderful to look back and see the evolution of my ideas and the solutions i have discovered through trial and error. i built a pair of collapsable fire fans about two years ago, but that was after first thinking of the design five years ago (I've been fan dancing for six/seven years now) and then actively putting my design into experimentation over the course of a year (i actually put together an independent study course where i got college credit for forcing myself to make the prototype of the fans plus another class specifically in jewelry/metal working so i could have the skill level to make them.) at the time period when i did the planning i had never actually seen anyone else with a fire fan (folding or nonfolding) so the bulk of the project was putting all of my ideas down and going from there to figure out how to make it. i tend to start out with tons of rough sketches followed by notes to myself related to questions, material quirks, business where i can find supplies, measurements/angles, plus the random ideas that i would like to somehow include when i figure out how. it definatly helps to make a blueprint and test version out of cardboard and cheap materials cuz what it looks like in 3-d can be much different than your ideal sketch. i made fans out of paper, metal, glowsticks,wire, and misc. odds and ends that i found around.i am still in the process of making a set of fans that meets all of my expectations, it is an ongoing process what can i say. it also helps to have a stubborn/determined/creative/interdisiplinary take on projects and problem solving. all of this to make a collapsable fire fan took a long time but it pays off, i like the product that i have now and it feel good knowing that i made it with my own two hands.


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