Make: Noise — Discuss this article

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• Building stronger tensegrities
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  Fullers' work, and tensegrities in particular, have been a hobby since grade school, and when I saw the article in Make I had to get a copy. It motivated me to dig my stuff out of the closet.
  
  Years ago I made an icosahedron of steel springs and aluminum tubing. Later, I substituted several heavy-duty rubber bands for each spring. Aluminum struts can be strung tightly enough to reverberate for quite a while after being hit or bounced.
  
  One of my hobbyist goals has been to get past soda-straw/wooden dowel/rubber-band construction, yet remain with off-the-shelf components. Recently, motivated by the Make article, I revisited that goal and devised a method of making adjustable connectors so that nearly invisible fishing line could be used without knots or rubber bands. Aesthetically, it's a work in progress, but it still looks cool. An explanation of the revamped icosahedron model is on my blog at unityplural.blogspot.com.
  

  Posted by jerseyboy on January 03, 2008 at 12:17:53 Pacific Time

• tensegrity in cubeland
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  I've gotten a lot of inquisitive comments from people who have seen my sculpture after I moved it to my cube.
  
  Here's what mine looks like:
  http://flickr.com/photos/33689749@N00/sets/72157594168145120/
  
  The funniest thing is when people realize that it's stretchy, compress it like a spring, and see how high it will bounce.
  
  I've got a basic 3-rod tendule next to it, and I think just about every visitor to my cube picks it up to play with it.

  Posted by drinkumbrella on June 16, 2006 at 21:54:46 Pacific Time

• tensegrity in cubeland
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  Hi drinkumbrella, nice job!
  
  I noticed from the Flickr photos that you seem to have tapered the ends of the rods.
  
  It would seem that this might make it a lot easier to tension correctly, and would possibly make it more consistently return to it's shape when compressed and 'bounced' around (as well as make the elastic cord not wear so much).
  
  Would you comment on these issues? I'm gearing up to make one of these, and any tips would be appreciated.
  
  Like why you tapered the ends - my suppositions may not have covered your reasons...
  
  Thanks.

  Posted by Area66 on July 11, 2006 at 18:47:12 Pacific Time

• tensegrity in cubeland
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  Posted by buon on April 08, 2009 at 01:22:57 Pacific Time

• Missing peices
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  The article has left out the fact that you need two (2) rolls of the Stretch Magic cord.

  Posted by hlumbard on June 11, 2006 at 11:23:58 Pacific Time

• Missing peices
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  Good catch hlumbard.
  
  The way things usually go for me I'd best buy three rolls...
  
  Thanks for the heads up.

  Posted by Area66 on July 11, 2006 at 19:16:11 Pacific Time