A STEM Project - Making an Amusement Park Ride Called a Scrambler

The Scrambler Amusement Ride

The Scrambler is an interesting addition to my ever expanding amusement park series.  I have made multiple ferris wheels and carousels. Check them out if you haven't made them yet.  The base of the Scrambler is a box.  This model will make a perfect gift to give to someone special. It has one main axle which rotates and three smaller axles which rotate individually.

Here is the PDF.  I used 65lb. cardstock and chipboard.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18_B7L6XzUrgz9MHEGPKr-JXV1HLBpVUR/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pADpm3qPv_6LGOH6E8EB18Gdwk3Iezsf/view?usp=sharing

 Make the Scrambler seats.  The star pieces are glued to the yellow base. The blue rectangular seat is folded in a W. 

 Put a line of glue in the hollow of the W on the yellow piece as shown above on both sides.  Adhere the seat on both sides. Repeat for all of the seats.

 Glue cover pieces on the chipboard on both sides. This gives the seat assembly a nice platform to rest on.

 The cross beam is shown on the left.  On the top right, the cross beam is bent.  This cross beam is for decoration.  It does not support anything. The piece on the bottom right is the seat platform.  The seats will be glued to this piece.

 Glue the seats to the cross beam at the dotted line.  Make sure all of the seats are going in the going in the correct direction.

Turn the seats over.  It should look like the above photo.

 Turn the seats over. Glue the seat platform to the seats.

 Notice where the glue was applied and the position of the seat on the seat platform.

 Completed seat assembly.  Repeat for the other two seat assemblies.

 Seat assemblies completed.

 Sandwich the chipboard in the middle of the blue pieces. Repeat for the other crossbeam. These two pieces are the main platforms for the seat assemblies. One will be on top and the other on the bottom of the seat assemblies.

Make the center axles by rolling them into a tube and gluing them together,

Slide on the circle.

Spread the tabs apart and glue to the circle.

Slide the axle onto the crossbeam

Crossbeam assembly

Slide the seat assemblies onto the crossbeam. Make sure that the seat assemblies move freely.

Slide the top crossbeam onto each of the seat assembly axles.

Slide on a circle washer.

Apply glue as shown and adhere the tabs to the circle washer.

Make the bottom of the box by creasing the pieces as shown above.

Glue together

Glue a base to the tabs and glue another corresponding base to the inside of the box.  This will create a two-walled box bottom to give the box strenghth.

Take the scalloped top pieces and glue into a hexagon.  Apply glue to the inside tabs as shown

Repeat for the other scalloped piece. Glue the scalloped pieces together.

Glue the top hexagon into the scalloped piece as shown on the right in the picture above. Glue the yellow yardstock with the hole in the middle to the chipboard.

Thread the center axle through the chipboard.

Glue the center axle to the chipboard and apply glue as shown. Attach this piece to the scalloped box top.

Slide the seat assembly onto the center axle. Glue the star embellishments onto the seat axles.

Glue the embellishments onto the main axle.  The rectangular piece is folded in half and glue together and a star is glued on either side of this piece at the top.

 Top View

Happy Summer!

A STEM Project - Using the Silhouette Cameo Software to Make Kaleidoscope Flowers

If you like Kaleidoscopes then you will love making these Kaleidoscope flowers.

Make a circle using the drawing tools.  Remember that you need to hold the shift key down to make a perfectly round circle.

Second, make a petal shape that you would like repeated on the edge of the circle. This shape is a closed figure. Next, remove the portion that would be on the edge of the circle. To remove this portion inside the circle, you can do it in a variety of ways such as using the eraser tool or the knife tool or point editing mode. You can choose which ever one you feel comfortable with.  You have now created an open shaped object.

Next draw a straight vertical line. This line needs to be added to the shape to move the grab handle so that the software will work. Move this line so that the top of the line and the left side of the open shape are close to one another.

Here is an example of what I made 

Click and drag to make the petal shape and the straight line with a bounding box around them both. Go to the Object menu and in the drop down menu Make Compound Path.  Double click inside this bounding box to go to point editing mode. 

The red points that are at the top of the line and the bottom of the petal shape need to be joined. 

Click on the red dot and move it so that it turns from red to gray. The point that would be on the circle is gray and has been joined correctly.

This joined point is the point that the grab handle crosshair needs to be centered at. Adjust the line downwards by clicking on the red point on the left side of the figure(this point was the bottom of the line that you just merged with the petal figure) Move this red point until the cross hair circle is centered on the left side where the point would intersect the circle.

The grab handle crosshair is now positioned correctly over the left point on the circle.

Go to the Replicate menu and choose the Object on Path menu. Notice that the bounding box is around the petal shape. 

 Click on the Show Grab Handle. Move the curser to the Grab Handle Crosshair that you just created. The crosshair will turn red when you grab it correctly. Move the grab handle to the circle.  You will notice that you will get multiple petals depending on the number of repeats. I have three repeats. Notice that the petal is not angled correctly on the circle. You can change the angle by changing the start angle under the Perpendicular section of the menu.  

I clicked the start angle and moved the figure slowly until the angle was 27 to get the petal on the circle.

Here I added a few more petals by changing the Number of Repeats to five. At this point you are done making a flower. you can use the outer edge of the image by using the Offset menu. I will explain how to do this later.  In the meantime, I want to show you a really interesting part of the replicate software. You can alter the points of the flower to create a kaleidoscope!

Double click the flower image and you will get gray and red dots.  These dots are the original points of the petal figure with the handle. Drag the point around the screen to create interesting kaleidoscope figures. Change the values for the number of repeats and start angle to create even more variations of your design.

Kaleidoscope Flower

In order to get a cutable image, highlight the flower and set the Offset window to .01 and then apply. Go to the Object window to release the compound path.  Select the outer line which looks like your flower and highlight it to Offset the image with an Internal Offset of .01. Discard the outer image by deleting it. The resulting image is now your Kaleidoscope flower.

A STEM Project - Making an Airplane Carousel That Really Moves with a Gear

Airplane Carousel

I am making this airplane carousel to give to my son-in-law today for his birthday.  I enjoyed making this model.  I especially like the kaleidoscope effect with the stars changing colors and the airplanes twirling around. I do remember as a child going on a ride like this at the Jersey Shore in the summer.

Here is the PDF.  I used 65 lb. cardstock.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oLjzy28F9Rq9CltGj-O-fT0P2mThv36W/view?usp=sharing

Here is the .Studio file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11rMFviEs44dA_9xFb-gNWZYSCcgUMlvn/view?usp=sharing

Here is the SVG.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TkhFokA8Tff0piayffxDSM_h4-x-pWUm/view?usp=sharing

The carousel canopy made in this blog posting is 5 inches.  To make a 6 inch version, go to this blog posting. https://papercraftetc.blogspot.com/2021/05/a-stem-project-world-war-ii-airplane.html

 Make the box by bending the bottom piece in an octagon.

 Glue together and bend the top tabs downward.  Glue the bottom of the box to the tabs.

 Apply glue to the top of the tabs and adhere the top of the box. (The box has two of the same pieces glued together to give the box stability.)

Glue the star to each octagon segment using the template for placement. Repeat the above instructions for the bottom of the box.

The smaller wing has a tab which must be moved at a right angle. Glue the corresponding wings together. Crease the dotted lines as shown in picture above for the airplane.

 Glue the trapezoid shapes together precisely. It should look like the photo above.  Make sure the glue dries before continuing.

 Glue three circles together to form a stack of circles.  Glue a larger circle onto the top of the stack of circles.  This assembly will make a brad which allows the propeller to spin around.  If you do not care if it spins, just glue the propeller and head of the brad to the airplane and skip the next four steps.

 After the glue has dried on the brad, thread the circle through the hole in the airplane.

 Thread the propeller onto the brad and apply a small drop of glue to the center.

 Attach the head of the brad (dark blue circle).  Make sure that it does not move around and that the glue remains in the center so that the propeller can move freely.

Interior view of the propeller assembly.

 Crease the pentagon tabs inward and apply glue to the tabs.

 Apply glue as shown in the photo above. There was glue applied to the hanger at the left. It is not visible in the picture though.

 Side view of the airplane.

 Insert the wings.  Apply a small bead of glue on the main wing.  Glue the tabs underneath on both sides the plane as shown above.

 Completed airplane. Repeat the above instructions for the other three planes.

 Make the canopy by bending the whole tab of the hanger upwards and then downwards to create a double sided hanger.  Glue this hanger together. Repeat for the remaining seven canopy pieces.

 Apply glue as shown above.

 Adhere the piece as shown above. Notice that the piece is place downwards with the edges aligning together with the previous piece. Repeat until the canopy is completed.  Notice that the hangers are all sticking upwards.  This will be where the airplanes will be attached to the canopy with a thread. Repeat for the rest of the canopy pieces.

 Make the center cone by creasing the folds and gluing together. Above it is laying flat. Below is a picture when completed gluing in a circle.

 Crease the edges of the cone as shown above and put the gear with the hole in it though the cone. Glue the gear to the cone.

Apply glue as shown and adhere the corresponding teeth together.

 Glue the sun-like looking piece to the gear.

Slide the star piece onto the cone.

 Glue the corresponding piece to the bottom of the cone structure. Glue the tabs as shown to the outside of the piece.

Slide the canopy onto the cone and apply glue to the tabs as shown above.

It might take a little while to apply the glue to the canopy tabs.  I had to reapply the glue a few times to get the tabs to lay flat against the canopy.  Apply glue and attach the decorative cones to the top of the canopy.

 Glue and attach the smallest cone.

 Cut 4 twelve inch pieces of button thread to hang the airplanes.  (You can use any thread if you do not have button thread.)  Thread to one end of the plane. 

 Thread it through two of the holes in the roof of the canopy. I did multiple threading in this picture.  You can do one at a time.

Apply glue to the top of the box (I used a tape runner) Adhere the airplane carousel to the box.

Completed airplane carousel

Video of the airplane carousel in action

I hope you enjoy making this airplane carousel.  This model took me over 100 hours to design.  Please leave a comment if you liked making this model.  I definitely like feedback.

Thank you!

Elaine