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Ok, for my upcoming wedding, we want to build a giant d20 (at least 2.5' in diameter) to hang over the dance floor, like a disco-ball. The tough part is finding some easy way of doing so. Wooden dowel rods are nice and light, but getting all the angle right will be tricky. Anyone know any products or kits out there that might help? Has anyone else ever done this?
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Instead of dowels, I'd probably use PVC pipe. If you get it from a major hardware store (Lowe's or Home Depot, for instance), they should also have the joint pieces that would match the corners. As long as you cut the PVC pipe to equal lengths, the angles should arrange themselves once you snap it all together.
Anyway, good luck with the project, and more importantly, the marriage!
Here's an Instructable on making an Icosahedron (the one in the instructable is pie, but the basic information is still the same.)
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Instead of dowels, I'd probably use PVC pipe. If you get it from a major hardware store (Lowe's or Home Depot, for instance), they should also have the joint pieces that would match the corners. As long as you cut the PVC pipe to equal lengths, the angles should arrange themselves once you snap it all together.
Anyway, good luck with the project, and more importantly, the marriage!
The biggest problem is that they do not make the proper angled connection pieces for an icosahedron. If you notice, each corner of a d20 is the vertex for five edges. Also, PVC is expensive!
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Here's an Instructable on making an Icosahedron (the one in the instructable is pie, but the basic information is still the same.)
Interesting... A little more involved than I might be looking to get into tough. I might have to go the route of constructing it by assembling the faces rather than the edges...
Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming!
Here's an Instructable on making an Icosahedron (the one in the instructable is pie, but the basic information is still the same.)
Interesting... A little more involved than I might be looking to get into tough. I might have to go the route of constructing it by assembling the faces rather than the edges...
Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming!
Making the faces is likely the best way to go. The faces on a d20 are equilateral triangles. The "involved" part of the instructable was making the pans to bake the pie pieces. Since I doubt you intend to make it out of pie ~_^ , you can avoid making the pans and make the sides (perhaps from MDF). The hardest part I see there is gluing them together. Though if you got some help and used tape to hold the pieces together while they dry, it's certainly do-able.
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Making the faces is likely the best way to go. The faces on a d20 are equilateral triangles. The "involved" part of the instructable was making the pans to bake the pie pieces. Since I doubt you intend to make it out of pie ~_^ , you can avoid making the pans and make the sides (perhaps from MDF). The hardest part I see there is gluing them together. Though if you got some help and used tape to hold the pieces together while they dry, it's certainly do-able.Here's an Instructable on making an Icosahedron (the one in the instructable is pie, but the basic information is still the same.)
Interesting... A little more involved than I might be looking to get into tough. I might have to go the route of constructing it by assembling the faces rather than the edges...
Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming!
I was thinking foam-core board.
I was thinking foam-core board.Making the faces is likely the best way to go. The faces on a d20 are equilateral triangles. The "involved" part of the instructable was making the pans to bake the pie pieces. Since I doubt you intend to make it out of pie ~_^ , you can avoid making the pans and make the sides (perhaps from MDF). The hardest part I see there is gluing them together. Though if you got some help and used tape to hold the pieces together while they dry, it's certainly do-able.Here's an Instructable on making an Icosahedron (the one in the instructable is pie, but the basic information is still the same.)
Interesting... A little more involved than I might be looking to get into tough. I might have to go the route of constructing it by assembling the faces rather than the edges...
Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming!
Foam core board would work beautifully. The only thing is, I tried once to make something like this out of poster board. Trying to do it by individual panels is really frustrating. If you can assemble the two halves separately and then attach them together it works better. Good luck. :)
Ok, for my upcoming wedding, we want to build a giant d20 (at least 2.5' in diameter) to hang over the dance floor, like a disco-ball. The tough part is finding some easy way of doing so. Wooden dowel rods are nice and light, but getting all the angle right will be tricky. Anyone know any products or kits out there that might help? Has anyone else ever done this?
Using foam core, Coroplast or even high density Styrofoam might be the way to go. At this scale, it should be solid enough to be self supporting, otherwise you need a structure and that, take my words for it, is a real mathematical and craftsman challenge. You'll be dealing with compound angles on three axis at each ends, and the fastening will not be obvious either.
My dad and I built a geodesic dome frame over our swimming pool once. It worked, It was fun but it wasn't trivial. Ours was to the second development of the icosahedron and I'd expect a basic icosahedron to be more simple but still, I suggest working with relatively thin material and eyeball the edges. Hot glue should be strong enough to hold that relatively small of a structure.
Geometry of the icosahedron can be found here
[Edit] Now that I think of it, I built a terrestrial globe based on the Icosahedron back in high school, about the size of a soccer ball. It was made of cereal-box cardboard, regular glue and was fairly solid. It was easy enough to make if I remember...
'findel