Design Journal - Day 6

December 2nd, 2018

Day 6 Journal

By: Simon Zhang

As stated in the previous journal, we wanted to reduce the friction between the metal launcher and the wooden base, so we came up with the solution to cover the entire base with vinyl. Angel bought some vinyl for our toy project from Dollarama for $3. After she bought it, we decided on a day to meet up to put the vinyl onto the wooden base, but then we ran into a problem.

Today was supposed to be the day that we put the vinyl onto the wooden base using nails and possibly a nail gun, but Angelica said that she had a problem with the vinyl. She said that she need help to smooth the wrinkles on the vinyl. This is a problem because if the vinyl has wrinkles in it, then it will not be laid down smoothly onto the wooden base. If it is not laid down flat, then friction will still occur, and which creates a problem. There should be minimum friction because the ball must glide with ease so that blocks can be knock down without struggling with the launcher.

I and Lee came to Angelica's apartment to help her with the vinyl. Before testing out ways to smooth out the wrinkles, we first went to the dry cleaners to see if we could get rid of the wrinkles on the vinyl. However, they could not do it, so we went back to Angelica's place to find methods on smoothing out the wrinkles on the internet. We first used a hairdryer to melt the plastic and hopefully get the wrinkles out by running a book over the melted plastic to keep it flat. This did not work out because the heat from the hairdryer only melted the vinyl and did nothing to get rid of the wrinkles. Here is a picture of the vinyl.

Since we ran out of solutions to remove the wrinkles from the vinyl out, we decided to go back to Dollarama and check out other options. We bought a tube of plastic wallpaper for $1.25 and a pack of wood wallpaper for $3. Fortunately, the plastic wallpaper was smooth enough to be a good alternative option to the vinyl, but the wood wallpaper was too rough that it would just cause the same amount of friction as if it was the wood base alone. This is a milestone in our toy project because we figured out the plastic material that will reduce the friction between the metal launcher and the wooden base.

Here is a picture of  the tube of plastic wallpaper and the wood wallpaper.