Dixie Cup Spherical Dodecahedron

All you need is a glue gun and 140 5 oz. Dixie Cups to achieve this rigid erection! Make several - then show off your amazing balls to friends and family! Then show them the thing you made out of 140 Dixie Cups! These Dixiespheres exhibit icosahedral symmetry, but other kinds are possible as well - I've included pictures of other Dixie Cup spherical constructions. I'd love to see any new ones you can come up with (especially if they exhibit some sort of symmetry), and I'd love to hear about how you use your Dixiespheres. I am a 30 year old man who makes things out of Dixie Cups!!! I'm starting to get a gut!!! I haven't taken a shower yet today...

Step 1: Constructing the basic 7-cup modular unit

The Dixiesphere is composed of twenty spherical-hexagonal 7-cup modular units, which you will construct first. Each hexagonal modular unit consists of seven cups hot-glued together such that one central cup is surrounded tangentially by six more cups. (The spaces between cups will look like equilateral triangles with concave edges, and the circular bases and rims of the cups will look like hexagonal close-packings of circles, but they will posess a slight overall curvature, as the circles define the surfaces of spheres.) It is important that the central cup contacts each of its surrounding six cups at their bases. It's a tight fit getting six cups around a center cup. Work quickly while the glue is hot to ensure that all upper rims and lower bases of the cups are flush, and that there are no superfluous gaps between the bases of the cups. Make all twenty units before assembling the Dixiesphere. Do not micturate in the cups!

Comments

[bglick21]

love the dixie cup dodechahedron and i am in need of a lampshade. i just purchased 140+ dixie cups and will purchase a glue gun soon. do you have instructions (url or something) to get me started or the process at its entirety? i will give you mad props, etc. and yes i have a gut too, because i am desk jockey by day. potlucks never tasted so good. morph me obi wan.

[guerroloco]

This resembles George Hart's lattice of 72 hexagonal pencils: http://www.georgehart.com/sculpture/pencils.html

[micronxd]

o shit that's awesome! never seen a cardboard mailing box of that shape b4 tho

[tledgerwood]

you could just pig out and get 12 toblerone packs and open them very carefully!

[jjordan]

Some comments are not appropriate for younger inventors.

[R. Buckminster F_cker]

Some of my comments were puerile (from the latin puer, boy) and vulgar, ie, not suitable for ADULTS, but none of my comments are going to screw any kids up, or even surprise many. I'll be lucky if I get a laugh. Not appropriate for young inventors? Don't pick on me! Industrial mercury emissions are not appropriate for young inventors. Most public education is not appropriate for young inventors. The drinking water in Washington, D.C. is not appropriate for young inventors. Prenatal malnutrition, water riots, Ritalin, War in Iraq, suicide bombers, carpet bombers, Game Boys, sit-coms, carbon monoxide, My Little Pony, Cabrini Green, mass-media dissemination of vacuous and shallow values which serve only to super-size an individual's capacity for raw, uncultivated material lust....oh but it's PARENTS who really F_uck kids up. And when they grow up, you can be sure kids will curse their parents for their problems, and not me. Does anybody even dimly suspect that one day a disillusioned young inventor is going to weep about just how bad I really assed-up his life? Yet how many of tomorrow's young adults will think of their incompetent former guardians and gnash their teeth, "Why couldn't I ever please you, Dad? Why did you pidgeon-hole me as a ballerina, Mom?" "Why did that guy who showed me how to make a spherical dodecahedron out of F_cking Dixiecups make a joke about testicular exhibitionism?" Just to bug the prudes. Platitudinous, unthinking and trite prudery is not appropriate in the company of intelligent primates, damn. And it's not appropriate for young inventors, either.

[tledgerwood]

i'm 14 and i personally found it hilarious

[mppercussion]

oh chill

[foxtrot4697]

Skirmishes in Iraq. 'Tis not a war yet

[coretj]

 Not to get WAY off topic .. but it is a WAR.  

It was enacted, as such, by a joint resolution of the Congress of the United States on October 16th, 2002

[foxtrot4697]

And wow, I just remembered what this instructable was about

[SpiroExDeus]

Hi. This site has a 'be nice' policy. Deliberately using peurile language in order to wind people up who you seem to have a chip on your shoulder about doesn't strike me as very nice. Neither does the rant you just wrote. Please be more considerate of others.

[taraist]

<3 I searched Buckminster Fuller looking for a present for my boyfriend who is a big fan. I think he may enjoy this! Any other Bucky inspired projects anyone? My neighbors do a similar thing to this but poke a bulb from a string of Christmas lights through each cup bottom and hang it from the cord for X- mas decor. I always enjoy having to look up words and finding out they are pertaining to something a bit uncouth! Yay lernin! I also enjoyed your testicular humor. Thanks from someone of the young-ish set!

[ChatOmbre]

Hats off to you, R. Buckminister (or should I call you Mr. F_cker?). I'm a teenager (and therefore still considered a kid by most), and I've gotta agree with you on this one. Also, the idea of taking "refuge in the icosahedron" is one that I'm quite amused by, especially since it made me start wondering if it might be a good place to play D&D... Thanks for the nifty instructable!

[nachobobs]

bollocks

[duck-lemon]

i agree

[fastback570]

if there are young inventors on this site, than the world still has some good in it. I think that any Instructable is at least one or two notches better than young people lookin up porn or much worse, spending hours of brain and social draining World of Warcraft. (sorry to the avid gamers ( but for real, go talk to girls)) any symmetry project is cool. but if you add LEDS then !Watch out! for multiplying coolness factor.

[taraist]

But what if the porn is underground victorian erotica? Or better?!

[foxtrot4697]

link pl0x
lol jk

[chalky]

agreed!

[sincitysaint]

so true, good call!

[jeffconnelly]

Dude... just...dude...My thoughts exactly, plus a few. Kudos on the speech...and the instructable! How did you take your face pic(beside your name)?

[solo.card]

You ruined your response with the swearing, really. Nice instructable though, I often think of doing something similar and making a lamp.

[Wolf Seril]

I litterally just gave you a standing ovation. This is officially my most favoritest quote ever.

[rc jedi]

YOU ROCK!

[Brandon121233]

Sounds like that paragraph sums up the early years of you life rather accurately.

[Pat-Rich]

O.k. so how old do you think the youngest person is that visits this website? I'm 13 and Buckminster is right. If you were younger you'd know that kids my age, and even younger than me, get enough crap from school, not to mention the Spectravision. P.S. I admire the time and thought you put into your lengthy list. "Game Boy", "My Little Pony"- Hilarious!

[djbarista]

I Chuckled Audibly. (feel free to abreviate it to ChA, for IM and Txt versitility)

[Vannion]

Cabrini Green, doesn't really affect anyone now, it is mostly Yuppie condos now

[R. Buckminster F_cker]

Cabrini Green is an anachronism, you're right. But there are still awful projects and slums. Detroit is still an urban wasteland, except for a bit of new development which gets all the press. The Hurricane swept away some awful projects in New Orleans. You know, I thought that whole city should have been cleansed by FIRE, but you take what you can get. (Ahh, inflammatory remarks..) I wish the folks I met down there were a little more reform-minded. I wish Johnson had been in the Whitehouse when Katrina hit, and not Bush. Yuppies eat souls, by the way.

[geek65535]

"Inflamatory remarks"? Don't you mean incendiary? 8-)

[R. Buckminster F_cker]

"..vacuous and shallow values.." was a poor choice of words, too. If it's vacuous, it ain't shallow - it's empty.

[trebuchet03]

sir... I tip my hat

[R. Buckminster F_cker]

How much do you tip hats these days, anyway? 15%? Har! Thank you much! But You're gonna make my head swell. Next cause I take on, I'll go overboard: "Can't have sex with Donkeys? Wait a minute!"

[trebuchet03]

PG13 ratings - "May contain tempered violence, occasional swear words and allusions to sexual situations." And in order to register, you must be at least 13 years old.... in any case, there's a reason why the "flag for review" link is there ;)

[roxycutie329]

I really like this one. Can you please post the instructions for it?

[flothmann]

well, take a close look of the picture: you need 12 pieces, 3 runs vertical, then 3 runs perpendicular respect the first group, the next group of 3 runs from left down side to top rigth side and the last gruoup of 3 from right bottom to the left top. I hope helps

[nicolasjara]

I like it. It's positive and constructive instructable.

[MotaBoi]

ppppwawaaaaahahahahahahaha RIGID ERECTION!

[SpiroExDeus]

By the way. Thanks for adding the phrase 'Rigid erection' to the beginning of your instructable. Please think of those of us who use a content filter when you write these things :P Added instructables to my 'exceptions' now though, as I'm pretty certain it has nothing that will corrupt young minds. :D