Attempt at 'Bursting Sun'

This is my attempt at making the kinetic sculpture designed by 'Anthony Howe'. One of his sculptures; 'the bursting sun' is my inspiration of this project. Here i try my best to replicate it and also try and replicate the movements of this sculpture. If it does not move... at least I hope it will look like a decent flower kind of thingy... SO! let's get started!!!

These Kinetic Sculptures Hypnotize You (youtube.com)

For this build we will be needing the following materials!

1. Glue - insta glue (LOTS of it!)
2. 3d printer / 3d printing service
3. resin for 3d printing
4. filament for 3d printing.
5. bearing: 9mm OD, 5mm ID (12)
6. Thin copper sheet (0.05mm thick)

First, we shall 3d model the various parts to be 3d printed. I am currently using the 'Fusion 360' app for this purpose.

After using various tools and a many trials and errors later i came up with this design!

It has various parts:

1. The 'Petals': For the 3d design, it consists of 17 cups.
2. The 'Alignment rods': These help in making all the petals spin at the same time.
3. The 'Ring': It holds the Petals at a circular shape.
4. The 'Base': It supports the whole structure.
5. The 'Gears': It rotates the Petals.

For those who wish to get it printed with the cups:

.Stl files are included (First one is a '.f3d' file... for those who wish to tinker it!)

The Alignment rods play an important role in the functioning of the structure. Sure that the petals would revolve without it, but they will spin haphazardly without unison.

The Rods here as shown in the above gif, forms 2 circles, the yellow one shows the smallest form and the red one shows the largest form the rods can take.

Since the overall diameter of the circle formed by the rods keep changing, I created this interlocking structure that will move in accordance to the change in the shape of the circle.

If we join all the petals in one big circle, then it would not move at all!

For those who wish to get it printed without the cups:

The .Stl files are included

I got this printed in two types:

1. for the petals, alignment rods and the ring, I used resin printing as it will be more accurate and more detailed.
2. for the base and the gears, i shall be using 'FDM' printing as it does not need that much accuracy in detail.

As seen in the previous step, the petals are printed in 2 halves to prevent extra usage of resin as it has an overhang.

1. Take one half of the petal preferably the one with the side which looks like 'Mikey ears' and then put a few smaaal drops of glue in the inner half where the bearing will go (as shown in the image).
2. Then place the bearing in the inner half.
3. Once secured, put more glue on the other half of the petal and join them together making sure that the glue does not go inside the bearings.
4. Then, take a 5mm rod and insert the joined petals and spin it against a straight vertical object in the background to see if there is any misalignment as shown in the gif.
5. Repeat 9 more times!

The bare Petals are complete!!!

For the cups I used the copper sheet as i thought that the lovely copper colour would be a nice contrast against the white of the 3d print.

I made the first disk to be 2cm in diameter and then the size decreases (1.8, 1.5, 1.3 so on).

1. Firstly, take a stiff notebook cover and cut out a circle (it need not be perfect as it will be shaped later on)
2. Now we take the notebook circle and place it on the copper sheet and cut out over the outline.
3. We shall repeat this for each size of the circle 10 times. Here i choose to make only 9 cups for each half of the petals as it will be a bit easier {That is a total of (9x10) x2 = 180 cups!}
4. Take a tissue paper and a towel, fold both and place the tissue on the towel to make a sort of squishy mould for the copper flats.
5. Now we put the copper flats and taking a round bottom tool we can hammer or press it firmly onto the copper flats placed on the tissue. cups are ready!
6. Take 9 separate sheets of paper and place the copper cups on it so that it neatly available whenever you are ready to stick them to the petals.
7. for 9th disk i simply took a thin strip of the copper sheet and made 20 square cuts as it became too small to make circles

Here I made the flats one by one and stuck it to the petals, you can do whichever way is easier!

The Cups are done!!!

Here the alignment rods play a key role in making all the petals all at once rather than in a random order.

1. Take the petals and the alignment rods.
2. Put a drop of glue on each indent on each side of the petals (2 in the Micky side and one on the other).
3. Place the rods on the indents and make sure they are well aligned and parallel.
4. Make sure to put only 2 on one of the petals (The Mickey side) and only 1 in one of them (The other side).

Alignment Rod fixture is complete!!!

I preferred to stick all the rings and the petals first before attaching them to the base as starting from the base will cause the top to be too heavy and may collapse before the glue dries.

1. Take one petal and apply a tiny amount of glue on the bit that is not the bearing.
2. Take a part of the ring and stick it to the applied part.
3. Now we repeat the same procedure until all but the last 2 that is directly connected to the base is left out.
4. The last 2 is connected to the base and once the glue dries, we can take the larger part (as shown in the picture) and glue it to the remaining part to complete one full circle.

The Ring is Complete!!!

The Build is Complete!!!

Thank you so much for your time! and hope you have a great day!