Presents
Little Inventors

Making blog

All the latest news and updates from our incredible inventors and magnificent makers
The Ball Pusher
Posted by Nishad Joshi about Evie's The Ball Pusher

Assembled a portable Basketball hoop with a stand and painted it with blue spray paint. Purchased a DC geared motor according to the required torque and designed some mounting clamps to fix that motor. We got an old Mannequin hand and designed a special mounting to fix it on the motor shaft. Finally, Arduino and LM298N motor drivers have been used to control the motion of the motor. When someone presses the push button, the Arduino gets the signal and instructs the motor driver to move the arm as per the program. It also has the limit switch to determine the start and stop of the hand. All the motor, limit switch and push button holders are 3D printed using PLA. The motor and the limit switch are mounted on the plywood board, made using a CNC router. All design and manufacturing process is carried out by The Making Rooms in-house.

A raincoat for an owl
Posted by Jenni Smith about Isla's Twitarain Kit

I honestly didn't know that owl's wings were not waterproof  limiting their ability to fly in the rain. This is quite a problem here in the North of England! They could go hungry if there is no way to collect food, so I was instantly impressed with Isla's invention and her gorgeous drawing. 
I have had a Zoom call with Isla, her teacher and her dad to find out more about her creative vision. Upcycling and using sustainable materials are really important to Isla so we have agreed to find a pre-loved raincoat to refashion and to think on bamboo or another sustainable resource. She wants to channel bright, common rainwear colours and so we have decided on red and yellow and she also told me her owl is called Fred. The mission is clear, Fred needed a stylish, sustainable raincoat and also some boots - I'm a little nervous how they might come together (shoes are really not my area of expertise) but we have planned a day of making at my studio to make a start. 

Update!

The Little Inventors team have sent a gorgeous cuddly owl to work with and I have found the perfect red coat in my local charity shop along with bright yellow Swedish dishcloths which I chose over bamboo as they have a little more structure and are also biodegradable. Now we have to make a pattern, make sure Isla is happy with how her invention is looking and get sewing!

Remote control
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

On the call I had with Muskaan, she came up with a great idea to make the washing machine able to be controlled remotely so I've made a pair of arms and phone so that I can add this into the animation too in order to show how this might work

Shooting
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

To make animation using stop motion techniques you have to move the model and little bit and photograph it every time you move it. I've set up the model in front of a white backdrop paper roll. I use computer software to play back my animation as I'm going so I can tell what it looks like. The water in the washing machine is made from cling film.

Preparing for animation
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

Some of the props need to be adapted for animation, for example, the clothes need wire in them so they stay in place when I move them. I've used pipe cleaners in the trousers and a special kind of foil inside the t-shirt which is thick and stays in place when you crumple it.

Ironing board
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

The ironing board needed a fabric cover like real life versions do so I've stuck on some fabric, trimming it down so it is neat to the edges of the wood underneath

Clothes
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

I had a great chat with Muskaan about the the progress of the invention make, and she helped decide what clothes would be featured in the animation being washed by The Laundry Flyer. I've made the clothes using tiny pattern pieces and they are glued and stitched together.

Fan
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

The invention drawing has a fan to dry the clothes, so I've cut out some wooden panels on the laser cutter and glued them onto a tube so that the fan can turn in the animation.

Robot hand
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

Muskaan's design has a hand which does all the hard work of the laundry, so I've made a hand out of epoxy clay with wire inside so that it can move and bend. I'm going to be animating The Laundry Flyer using stop motion animation, so it is important to make sure  I can move the pieces. The arm for the hand is made out of ball and socket joints - these work a little bit like our own bone joints to allow movement.

Painting
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

I need to paint the inside of the drum now before I glue the whole thing together so that I can get to the interior easily.

Gluing Wood Together
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

Now I've got the pieces cut out I need to start sticking them together which is a little bit like doing a jigsaw! I'm building the main shape of the washing machine first. It has a drum inside it made from glued together circular pieces.

Cutting out wood
Posted by Chloe Rodham about Muskaan's The Laundry Flyer

Today I've been cutting out some wooden shapes to create the structure of Muskaan's Laundry Flyer. I used a laser cutter at a place called FabLab which has lots of different making machines and tools. I needed to design the shapes of the pieces digitally on my computer first then send that to the laser cutter, a bit like printing a file. It is very exciting to watch the laser cutter whizzing around to cut out the pieces!