[Imc-makerspace] Fwd: ENGINEERING CHALLENGES - PLEASE HELP!

[MakerSpace Urbana]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Gaiuranos <michaelgaiuranos at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 12:58 PM
Subject: ENGINEERING CHALLENGES - PLEASE HELP!
To: makerspaceu at gmail.com
Cc: chris.ritzo at gmail.com, stuartnlevy at gmail.com


Hey Makerspacers:

This is Snow Leopard. I've hung out with SDAS etc at the IMC.

A friend of mine is staging a play, and we have four props that need
implementing/solving. And I was hoping you guys could think of solutions to
the technical challenges of them.

1. A file cabinet out of which an actor is wheeled. I believe a 4-drawer
file cabinet would be bigger enough for our small actor to hide in. I
imagined that teh side of the file cabinet could be cut and hinged like a
door, which would open, allowing him to be trundled out (while sitting on a
small wooden roller). We've talked about building this out of wood also,
especially to custom-size it for the actor. Cardboard has been ruled out,
because the cabinet has to travel (to Chicago and elsewhere) and needs to
have a heavy presence on the stage. It starts on the stage t the beginning
of the play and never moves. Presumably this is the easiest thing. The most
important part of this prop is that it be the case that the actor appears
to get removed from a file cabinet. Other details are negotiable.

2. We need a clock-like turning mechanism. I want it to have the "jerky"
motion that a second hand has on an analog clock. But the thing needs to
advance every 4'33", not every second. To the front of this mechanism will
be affixed a disk with thumb-drives inserted into it--this represents some
kind of futuristic "recording device" with multiple thumb-drive ports. It
will not have to really function that way. This whole thing will be stuck
tot he side of a cam-corder, and will create the illusion of a cam-corder
with thumb-drive recording capabilities that auto-advances every so often.
To have some kind of flashing light on the currently activated thumb-drive
would be awesome. Also, the cam-corder itself needs to be fitted with a
flashing red light. None of this actually needs to really do what it
appears to do. The cam-corder will not be recording, it will not be sending
data to the thumb-drives. People tell me this is harder than I imagine, but
I'm sure Makerspace guys would find it a cinch. I'm at this moment looking
at an analog clock with a second hand, and if that second hand could get
persuaded to advance only every 4'33" (or close to that), we'd have the
mechanical basis of the prop. The most important element of this prop is
actually the flashing red light on the cam-corder; it needs to be large
enough to be seen by an audience, even in full dark. The most important
part of the "recording wheel" is to give teh cam-corder a recurring motion
that remindst he audience members it is there. A little whirlygig that goes
off every 4'33" stuck on top of the thing would meet this criteria. since
I'm making a wish list, it would be cool if it could be made to stop
working half-way through the play. This could be done manually by an actor
(removing a battery, for instance). I've already imagined that if the wheel
stops turning, then the actor would continue to advance the thing by hand.
But it would still need to be automated before that. An acceptable solution
also would be that the advancing mechanism is somehow (but simply) remotely
activated. Then whoever is the tech person just "clicks the clicker" and
the wheel turns (or the whirlygig spins).

Sorry for all this context if not necessary; I'm trying to be clear about
what is needed.

3. We need a mock window with a flashing red light. This represents a red
giant out in the night sky twinkling away. Over the course of the play, the
star dies. So, it needs to flicker in the window, then stop. This could
also be remotely activated?

4. Now the thing that concerns me most. Here's a description of what
happens. The character drops a book into an ashcan; the book catches on
fire (without the character lighting it), and burns for a long while.
Eventually, the character takes a vase of orchids in water and uses that to
put out the fire. That's the sequence.

What we've thought of so far is dividing the ashcan in half, so the actor
can drop the book in one half, and then ignite a fire (using some still not
yet decided material) in the other half, thus sparing the actual book. The
desire is that the fire will burn for a while. When the actor dumps in the
orchids and water, the orchids would go first on the book side, and the
water on the fire side. (1) what would it take to remotely activate the
fire; (2) what material would be in there that would burn for a while
without being a massive fire danger; is it filled with wax or something
like a candle; adding supplemental oxygen would help; (3) ensuring the
water puts the fire out.

I can only imagine this would be considerably easier if an illusion of fire
were done, rather than fire itself. I'm not going to try to guess anything
more here, because I'm pretty stumped. which is why I came to you guys.
And, of course, to up the ante on the challenge, the closer the budget for
this is $0, the better :)

So if you could get back to me as soon as you could, that would be a
tremendous help. Thanks!

Snow Leopard
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/imc-makerspace/attachments/20121215/02eade49/attachment.html>