Spinnie

Project duration

10 Weeks

Fall 2023

Materials

Bass Rod

Cast Silicon Bronze

Threaded metal balls

Bronze bushings

Stainless Shaft Collars

Stainless Shaft

Fabrication methods

Turning

Sand Casting

Slip rolling

key skills

Kinematic Design

Interaction Design

CAD

Pattern Making

Spinnie is desktop kinetic sculpture that celebrates the physics of momentum and inertia in a tangible, and interactive way.

The idea started from a video by CPG grey:

I thought, what would happen if there was no wall, and the blocks were on a loop. The number of collisions should be infinite!

Sadly, we don't live in a frictionless world, so I wasn't able to achieve an infinite number of collisions.

I began with a few simple sketches:

I prototyped different sizes for the dome, and balls. tried the idea of having a circular track but that was hard to play with.

Manufacturing the dome:

I went to CAD and designed the dome and the gate and runner for casting.

And then for sand casting I 3D printed the pattern and sanded it to 500 grit sand paper before ramming up sand and casting.

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The brass pins:

To make the brass pins I started by turning down the diameter, cut a 10-24 thread on the ends of pins, then drilled and reamed a hole to press fit the bronze bushings.

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After pressing in the bushings, it was time to turn the pins into shape. I wanted to add a soft radius to the pins.

I started by grinding my own lathe tools.

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Half way there!

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Next up was sanding and finishing the dome,

before drilling and reaming a hole to press fit the shaft in place.

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For the pins, the crucial step:

Slip rolling them into shape, to perfectly line up!

All parts made!