Fundamentals
September 2022 - April 2023

Check out the full video :

For the assignment to make an “effective but inefficient” wooden mechanical nutcracker, Amy van Zutphen and I made this wall of mechanisms controlled by a series of cam wheels and pulleys to create this dramatic show to distract the user while a hammer slowly comes closer and threatens to fall on their head.

We laser cut the mechanisms and gears but handmade the frame, hammer, and all the fabric pieces covering the mechanisms. We had 8 weeks to complete this project and both learned a lot from each other.

As it was a collaborative project we each had some different responsibilities but overall we did most of the tasks together. Of the individual tasks, I was responsible for the technical drawings and precise measurements and some of the laser cutting. We worked together on building the wheels, frame, mechanisms and fabric attachments.

Process

Our first mechanism prototype made out of cardboard based on the mechanism of an umbrella

Cam wheel shape experiments but we decided to just go with a circle

Front view Rhio sketch for exact measurements

Side view of Rhio sketch for exact measurements

working prototype of mechanisms attatched to a cam wheel

Davinci gear prototype for falling hammer

We realized there was too much friction between the frame and the rods

our solution was to re-drill the holes a little bigger and insert the metal pipes in order to reduce friction

testing if it fits well on the rod (before we realized we neede to use a metal rod)

The rods kept falling off the cam wheels so we made these supports to help keep the rods in place.

Experimenting how fabric could be used on the mechanisms

I used a metal wire as a frame for a sewn pocket to put on the mechanisms

Another test for how it could be positioned

This was the position we liked the most, but the fabric we used frayed too easily when we sewed it like this so we had to change the design

Making the frame for the hand crank and the first attatched mechanism

Testing if the measurements for the gears were correct on our prototype frame.

The hammer attatched to the big gear with a nut and bolt

The nutcracker is finally coming together. Here we attatched the first mechanism, started testing the falling hammer and attatched the rope for the pulleys.

We had to make sure the hammer would fall in the correct spot in order to crack the nut so we needed to build a place to hold the nut.

This picture is a close up of the back of the frame to show how we attatched each mechanism.

Here the nutcracker is in the final stages of preperation, the pulleys and hammer are installed and the first row of mechanisms. Now the last steps are to attatch the rest of the mechanisms and the fabric pieces over them.

Process

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