Several months ago I awoke one morning with an idea for a project. I had gone to bed thinking about a presentation I am going to make to a group of middle and high school technology teachers in a couple of months. I wanted to come up with a simple and inexpensive projects they could use to teach their students some aspect of technology and hopefully inspire their creativity. During the night I dreamed of making machines out of paperclips and this project was born. As for the cost of this project - the wood and paperclips cost me 37 cents.
I already had several projects I was working on at the time so I thought about the idea for a couple of months before I actually sat down with a box of paperclips and started trying to make a machine. During those months I figured out the design and process for making the machine parts and a way to assemble them. I found that I only needed a few items and tools to get started. I found the process to be easy. Paperclip machines are interesting to design and build, and fun to operate when finished. I think the sculptural form of these machines take on an artistic element as well.
For educators this project is a great way to teach students the physics of mechanical machines including cranks, levers, fulcrum points, rotary and linear motion all while stirring their curiosity and developing their mechanical aptitude. In PLTW: this could go under Modeling and Design as a miniature working model or as a machine prototype in manufacturing or structural systems. It could also go under the Power/Energy section. In STEM: it could go under nearly all of the categories. Many thanks to dauphin 1974 who shared a link to a project called FAT Friday at MIT. http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/fat.html) In that program groups and individuals build machines and then link them together in a row to create a chain reaction. I would think it would be pretty simple to come up with a way to do something similar with paperclip machines. That would allow a whole class of students to each build their own paperclip machine and then link them all together to create a chain reaction.
PS - If I win the Grand Prize in the Shop Bot Contest - and I sure hope I do - I will use it to make proto boards for this project and others for middle and high school students in the STEM program.
Here is a video of the paperclip machine I built.
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I already had several projects I was working on at the time so I thought about the idea for a couple of months before I actually sat down with a box of paperclips and started trying to make a machine. During those months I figured out the design and process for making the machine parts and a way to assemble them. I found that I only needed a few items and tools to get started. I found the process to be easy. Paperclip machines are interesting to design and build, and fun to operate when finished. I think the sculptural form of these machines take on an artistic element as well.
For educators this project is a great way to teach students the physics of mechanical machines including cranks, levers, fulcrum points, rotary and linear motion all while stirring their curiosity and developing their mechanical aptitude. In PLTW: this could go under Modeling and Design as a miniature working model or as a machine prototype in manufacturing or structural systems. It could also go under the Power/Energy section. In STEM: it could go under nearly all of the categories. Many thanks to dauphin 1974 who shared a link to a project called FAT Friday at MIT. http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/fat.html) In that program groups and individuals build machines and then link them together in a row to create a chain reaction. I would think it would be pretty simple to come up with a way to do something similar with paperclip machines. That would allow a whole class of students to each build their own paperclip machine and then link them all together to create a chain reaction.
PS - If I win the Grand Prize in the Shop Bot Contest - and I sure hope I do - I will use it to make proto boards for this project and others for middle and high school students in the STEM program.
Here is a video of the paperclip machine I built.
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As a life-long Maker, I have always been one to tinker with all sorts of common objects. In meetings I am the guy who takes his ink pen apart and reassembles it over and over again. At dinner I tinker with my drinking straw and the wrapper it came in. One of my favorite things to tinker with are paperclips. I have always been fascinated by their ingenious yet simple form and function. I know they are just bent pieces of wire but they can also be much more than that. A quick search on Instructables shows that I am not alone in my fascination for making things with paperclips. People in the Instructables community have posted all sorts of paperclip projects. There are toy helicopters, earrings, a chandelier, various geometric shapes, lock picks, catapults and trebuchets all made from paperclips. This Instructable will be one more in that long list of things to do with paperclips.
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THANKS for this!
1. You could build a machine to wind up a trebuchet, catapult, etc...
2. You could incorporate batteries into it and make it out of paperclips, batteries, and electical tape.
Those are just a couple ideas.
now ijust have to make one...
Ron
http://www.micromark.com/economical-strip-and-wire-bending-jig,7070.html
Metal Forming Plier Set:
http://www.micromark.com/metal-forming-pliers-set-of-4,7068.html
I found it quite hard to create an original design. I hardly have any technical knowledge, so it was hard to think up new (usable) parts. I ended up copying most of your design. Would be nice to have a list of cranks, levers etc. with instructions on how to assemble them.
I could see some refinements: pre-drilled bases and precut wire segments that have had sharp ends smoothed. Other than that, leave all the bending and shaping in.
For HS students, just a bag of clips and a board along with the tools ;-)
Go collegiate and add the soldering idea.
I see competitions!
...again, great idea and execution.
Google 'Arthur Ganson' and check out the kinetic wire sculptures he creates...
Tower of six gears is amazing wire piece
Thanks for the time you put into making your informative 'ible!
In third grade I spent ours making electric "buzzers" with simple classroom materials including paper clips. Insulated wire (that was the most exotic material) was wound around a nail for the electromagnet, and a bunch of paper clips for the buzzer arm and the make-and-break contact, powered by a D cell battery. Thumbtacks held it all down on a wood board. Can't remember if the nail was held down horizontally by some hammered "staples" possibly.
They rarely worked well in spite of my efforts, although occasionally I got a hopeful buzz. Maybe now I can revisit that and do a little better. I think I needed some inertial mass on the buzzer arm to give it some momentum, and maybe more wire on the electromagnet. I sure more batteries would have helped, but the challenge is to do it with a single D cell. I'd like to see a little buzzer competition arise.
One thought - to make it uber attractive to kids (ok, and to me too!) I think it needs to DO something . If there was a small bell at the top of the verticle shaft so that every turn would ring the bell ...
Great job. Thanks for sharing
all you people interested in wire machines (or mechanisms) must to check this out:
http://www.arthurganson.com/
enjoy!
Maybe he can submit an instructable for that while he's doing porridge!
For the record- I like your application better.