Panic time and making my childhood da Vinci catapult work

To begin off, during the last class while there was a bunch of technical difficulties happening so I went ahead and experimented and (mentally, so don't expect note by note) documented the quirks of creating with paper in this technique or whatever you wanna call it. 

One thing I did with the tabbing is that I made the tabs fit with the top triangle area of each slice of the sphere so that it provided enough surface area to stick nicely but didn't overextend. This made the top and bottom areas thicker. One thing to also note is that the final step will always be the most difficult so I should probably use tweezers or something to close the objects in the future off if I don't want any messy things happening. Also, everything must be exact. That sounds a bit weird but this is made digitally using exact portions and numbers so it should be treated as such. 

*wow my hand looks weird there

*also an explanation for no rhino picture further below

    

             Childhood Catapult           60's Flask/Firehydrant/Musicbox               Compound Bow     

So between these 3 choices, I chose the one I found most interesting in terms of development and such. And it was the catapult. Yeah, it would've been easier to look at the actual blueprints of the catapult and measurements but I wanted to figure it out myself along the way also paper, in general, is a lot different than wood. Also, the catapult is intended to be fully functional afterwards.

Overall, I really just wanted to make something functional and cool that I could use. Yeah, I could use the one I have now but now I have the ability to make multiple if this goes well that is. 

But before we get into what I find juicy stuff, time for a short story break...

    

    Basically, all my files for each object were not loading and were probably corrupted somehow. I really did try everything and went through numerous rhino forums and such but time is short and I usually write these and do all the work within a single day and a single night. So I had to recreate the catapult again and unfold it all again, but this time made some modifications to fit it.

 

                                                                    (R.I.P my concepts)

The End (but not really). 

                                    Before                                                                        After                                                     

Thank God I didn't delete the previous photos of the old catapult as I could then see what I could upgrade and change with the design. 

                                                                         Full Work Space

One main difference I made throughout the catapult was making the frame pieces a lot thinner as it makes it stronger as there is less surface area to cover in terms of tension. It also helps less stress on the paper if it is weakened. 

*The only thing I could think about during this project was areas of tension. The project itself was supposed to be more or less hollow in some sort of way so I was thinking of an idea of making each of the areas of tension or places of tension, in general, be like bird bones which are hollow but have a bunch of strands of bone tissue to keep it stable and light. Another idea which was a bit more simple was using a bunch of triangle as support like what is used in bridges. But this is just a side thought I had right now when writing this blog post.* *I'm really tired right now so I will probably  add this Sunday after 12pm when I wake up at 1pm*

Bird things

    

    Previous Gear                                                         Finalized Gear

The teeth of gear were the first concern I tackled in the redesign which later changes to something more 'thicker'. The real problem was why were there so many teeth in the original gear of my model? Everything must be accounted for and work for some purpose. But really I'm pretty sure it was so that you can use the gear in any way (also the gear is slightly shifted off from the main axel but that was to provide ease for the stop I added in the new model, but man that was a bit of a scare). 

Tabs made to maximise surface to surface glueing stuff. 

If you notice they are not uniform cut trapezoids but cut off to give the maximum surface area the tab can fit glue to make sure the entire catapult would be secure

Time for some quick sketches to visualize tension and function and such. There isn't math because in the end if I make it sturdy enough it should work, also figuring out the forces of the string and arms I'm planning to use seems a bit like overkill as long as I recognize where it could go bad in the plan. 

Dowels and Tension/Stress Lines                                        Major Stress Points

   

   Quick X-ray Sketch of how the 'Bird Bone' way would work and be placed within the frame

Some more scramble thoughts are that I should also state that I will be doing some trial testing for what could be strings (thinking rubber bands cut up or chained somehow as this becomes more reliant on the string than the strength of the 'bows'), and 'bows' that provide the entire tension to the catapult, and dowels (skewers) for support. 

Blueprints

I made these in mind with consideration on how my mind works and something without colours helps me focus (its a weird thing but colours usually distracts me and always makes me cut something I'm not supposed to) So I just added folding lines and such. Another thing I might do is glue these to another piece of cardstock to make it thicker but I'm just worried about thickness affecting folding and overall building.

I kinda wanna make a tacky design on it too using Zim & Zou technique, like how in movies with that one plot where a kid has to do a race with their homemade racecar for their town race and at the very day the race is where it gets destroyed and then somehow through teamwork or something like a Deus Ex Machina happens and makes it somehow better and has a flashy weird design. Or maybe not idk.

Anyways I have forgotten to put some of the processes I wanted to talk about but I'm hella tired now and its almost 5 am so... bye for now.