Work being done

So been working a little on the idea of how to build the ferris wheel body that will be doing the spinning.  We have access to MDF, foam core, and some other build materials.

I made a 12"x12" and 1/4" thick base board to look like particle board since the material and apearance wasn't in solid works by default

     Next I made supports to hold the wheel.  Angled for some extra support with a filleted hole for smooth insertion of the axle.

     Next was the biggest pain. Working on the main body showed me how much of a pain solid works can be if you mess up the geometry.  circular patterns of bodies can also be a huge pain.  I first tried to circular pattern the sketch, but then it wasn't fully defined, and i had to do a lot of trimming. Then doing fillets was a huge pain to click on every edge.  Then the rotation did not put the edges matching up that i wanted, and it kind of looked like a bunch of hammers facing the same direction to hit a bunch of nails all at once.

     Funny and frustrating at the same time.  I think it has something to do with what plane you make a center line on and follows the plane axis rather than the one you necessarily want it to.

     Anyway, after fighting with geometry and other silly mistakes, I finally figured out how to make it do what i want.  I added a hole for the main axle and holes for the axles of the "carts" that hold passengers or stuffed animals, or pokemon or whatever.Then added an appearance and filleted holes for smooth insertion of the wooden dowels.

     Next was making some wooden dowels.  1/8" and 1/4".

     Next was putting all the pieces together in an assembly.  Using concentric, coincident, parallel and offset mates, I was able to get the wheels to fit together and not look too bad.

-Charlie