Night Light Rocket
Contents
Creating the acrylic discs
Building the nose cone
Building the base
Putting the components together
Learning outcomes and what I would do different
During my Design and Technology classes at Secondary school, I was tasked to manufacture, test and market a product. My idea was to build a Night lamp rocket out of light catcher acrylic that could be used at to illuminate a room. I created a product specification and design concepts which can be viewed below.
Creating the acrylic discs
I started of by using Google SketchUp and drawing out the discs and fins that were the major components of the build. This step was crucial, because if the dimensions and sizing of any one of the discs were wrong, then none the rods holding them together would have fit. I transferred the designs through to the departments laser cutter by exporting it as a .DFX file. Since it was a 2D design, the laser cutter would easily be able to process the drawings and begin the process of cutting out the shapes. After deciding to use light catcher acrylic, I chose to set a theme of blue and orange as the colors.
After the disc had been cut out, I wanted to test out what the final product would look like according to the product specifications. Originally, the centerpiece (the discs and pipe) would be 30cm long and the discs 3cm apart from eachother, however after modelling this with the discs I wasnt happy with the look. I decided to reduce the dimensions to a 20cm centerpiece with the discs in between at 2 cm apart, which drastically improved the look. This did result in me having to recalibrate the other components in the build accordingly.
Building the nose cone
I needed the final product to have some weigt to it so that it was strudy, this meant I decided to not build the base and nose cone out of acrylic. I attempted to use two materials and see which one I preffered, these were wood and silicone.
Using wood
To construct the nose cone with wood, I needed to learn how to use the wood lathe. The lathe rotates a block of wood and when a chisel is put onto the face of the wood, you are able to carve the object down. When I felt comfortable with the machine, by practising with scrap pieces of wood, I set about building the real nose cone. I got 5 pieces of wood and glued them together to make a block of wood 7cm tall and 11cm in diameter. I then drew a circle on the block of wood to represent the base of the cone and trimmed of the edges with a saw. I moved onto carving down the cone using a wood lathe to the appropriate size using the tools and used my hands to feel if there were any bumps. After using the wood lathe I then sanded down the cone to make it smooth.
Using a silicone mould
Making the clay mold from hand was not easy and it did not look right. So using acrylic, I laser cut 2 shapes to use as a support system to mold the clay around from. I continued to add clay which I then smoothed down using water and clay molding tools. This was key since each quarter of the nose cone needed to be as identical as possible. Next, I built a wall around the nose cone and poured in the silicone liquid and let it set for the required time. Unfortuantely, after cutting open the mold, the liquid had not reached the bottom and the mold was not complete. This meant it couldnt be used, so I had to settle for the wood nose cone.
Building the base
Since the base was going to hold the lights and have the fins sticking out of it, I stayed with wood. The process was very similar to the nose cone. I stuck 4 pieces of wood together, to make the total height of the base 8cm tall. I then used the wood lathe once again to carve and sand down the block of wood into a cylindrical shape.
I then placed one of the discs onto the top of the base and drew in the holes to mark the points I needed to drill. Next, using a circular drill bit, I drilled a hole into center of the top of the base to hold the fairy lights in, and a smaller wire hole on the underisde of the base to allow the wires to go through. Using a smaller drill bit, I drill three holes into the top again which would hold the acryllic rods. Unfortuantely, when drilling in one of the holes, the wood cracked and broke of leaving a gap.
To create slits for the fins to go into, I drew 4 construction lines indicating where I needed to cut. To create the slits, I used a mortiser, and drilled holes along the lines. Using chisel I was then able to smooth out the line and make them straight. Since the smallest drill bit on the mortiser was still to large, the slits were also now too large. To combat this problem, I slotted the fins into the base and packed in the spare space with wood. I then used a glue gun to secure them in place.
Putting the components together
Now that all the parts have been successfully built individually, I can now set about assembling it all together.
I placed the fairy lights into the base and then glued down the 4 acrylic pipes into the base. Next, I inserted all of the discs in order and began to space them out. Since some of the discs were slipping down and werent holding on properly, I glued all the discs into place and used spacers to hold them in place whilst the settled. Finally, using araldite glue, I stuck the nose cone onto the top.
Final touches and feedback
Following the same theme, I painted the base and the nose cone dark blue and made sure that the fairy lights were evenly spread across the central pipe.
And there you have it, my product was complete!
I asked my classmates and teachers for feedback on my Night Lamp Rocket, and these were the general comments and responses:
- Looked aesthetically pleasing in the light and in the dark. It was very bright when the lights were turned on
- It was very sturdy, didn't have to worry about it falling apart
- Did not strike the users as a rocket in the dark since the base and nose cone didn't light up
- Too many scratches and marks visisble when close up
- Lighting system was poor
Learning outcomes and what I would do different
What I learnt doing this project:
- Different machinery and manufacturing processes; Wood lathe, CNC drill, Laser cutter, Sanding machine, Silicone molds
- I learnt to abide by Murphys Law. Anything that couldve gone wrong did, and I learnt the importance in having a support system for every major component
- I learnt the general process of taking a design concept and manufacturing it
- It's good to trial and error with different processes to find the best outcome
- Incorporate more light catcher acrylic to make sure at night when it is lit up, it resembles a rocket better
- Add a better, stronger light system. This could be LED strips going up and along the central pipe and the base. The fairy lights look tacky
- Build prototypes and make any changes until I was content before making the final product
- Not cut out pieces of material in bulk