Dancing on Fire

Hi! We are Stan, Lauren and Obed and we are students at Howest, Kortrijk. We are in our second year of the study Industrial Product Design. For our course Design&Prototyping we had a group work, in association with Bolwerk. This is a company which makes entertainment installations for events. We had to design a new, creative and impressive installation, with one extra requirement: it has to include fire. So we began to process, first with some rough drawings and ideas, ending to a top ten out of thirty concepts. Than making iterations on those ten.

Finally, with the support of our teachers, we decided to make a game for two persons: we created a danc efloor, where one of the two persons has to stand on. The other person gets a remote, and when the music starts, the game begins! On the dance floor are 4 colours marked, and the person with the remote can decide which colour can light up. The person on the dance floor has to jump on the right colour, and if he gets it correct: a big blowtorch appears as a reward!

In the next steps, we'll show you how you can make such a great game from scratch! Enjoy!

These are the technical drawings from the dance floor. These are very useful.

Tools:

• buzz saw
• lathe & chisels
• multi tool
• drill
• drills (3 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 18 mm, 28 mm)
• plate scissors
• strippers
• nippers
• soldering iron
• wood glue
• regular glue
• screwdrivers
• paint brush
• welder

Materials:

• plywood (18mm, 9mm and 4mm)
• perspex plate (5mm)
• aluminium plate
• steel tube (38mm x 42mm x 5mm and 8mm)
• solenoid valves (x4)
• gas relaxer
• gas bottle
• Sanivesk gas T-Piece (x3)
• Sanivesk gas tape
• Sanivesk intestine (7m)
• hose clamp (x20)
• pressure regulator
• Sanivesk hose connector (1/4 "& 1/2") (x8 and x4)
• speaker cord (2x1,5mm) (20m)
• varnish
• paint
• seat angle (40 x 14mm)
• screws (3,5 x 20)
• countersunk screw (4mm)
• LED strip (15m)
• buttons (x4, for the remote)
• hydraulic coupling 1/2"| 12L (x4)
• breech 1/2" (x4)

Tools:

• buzz saw
• multi tool
• drill
• drills (3 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 18 mm, 28 mm)
• wood glue
• screwdrivers

Materials:

• plywood (18mm, 9mm and 4mm)
• iron angle (40 x 14mm)
• screws (3,5 x 20)

We bought plywood, from 18 mm and 9 mm thick. With the tools at school we sawn the wood into four wooden slats with each two slots, these will form the inner base. Than we sawn another four wooden slats, but without the slots, they will form the outer base. The endings of the outer slats are shaved, so they form clean corners. To make sure the outer base is solid enough, we attach in every corner an angle profile. These will make sure that everything stays where it belongs.

Tools:

• buzz saw
• lathe & chisels
• multi tool
• drill
• drills (3 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 18 mm, 28 mm)
• wood glue

Materials:

• plywood (18mm, 9mm and 4mm)

So we have a skeleton of wood, but it's not yet a steady dance floor. We had some wood left, so we cut out nine squares, and in four of them we made three wholes (for the wires of the gas and lights). The bottom of the complete dance floor is also made out of this wood. From the leftovers we made small 36 blocks we glued in the corners of the skeleton, so they can stabilize the nine squares. We also cut four squares out of mousse, that's for protecting the LED strips.

Tools:

• buzz saw
• multi tool
• drill
• drills (3 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 18 mm, 28 mm)
• plate scissors
• strippers
• nippers
• soldering iron

Materials:

• speaker cord (2x1,5mm) (20m)
• buttons (x4, for the remote)

These are very easy parts: we took some old boxes we didn't use any more, and we made a hole in two pieces of wood so they would fit into the dancefloor. Just insert your phone and you can play music. The remote is also pretty easy: an old lunch box works perfectly, but we do went to a specialized shop for the small buttons and the wires. Four buttons for four colours. Use the soldering iron to connect the wires with the buttons. Each time a red and a black one to every button. The wires will be attached later to the rest of the electric system, so they will be connected to the right colour. If this is done right, you can push the green button on the remote, and the green lights will flash on the dance floor. (step 6)

Tools:

• multi tool
• drill
• drills (3 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 18 mm, 28 mm)
• plate scissors
• strippers
• nippers
• screwdrivers

Materials:

• steel tube (38mm x 42mm x 5mm and 8mm)
• solenoid valves (x4)
• gas relaxer
• gas bottle
• Sanivesk gas T-Piece (x3)
• Sanivesk gas tape
• Sanivesk intestine (7m)
• hose clamp (x20)
• pressure regulator
• Sanivesk hose connector (1/4 "& 1/2") (x8 and x4)
• screws (3,5 x 20)
• LED strip (15m)
• hydraulic coupling 1/2"| 12L (x4)
• breech 1/2" (x4)

To make sure we can create blowtorches, we need gas. In order to protect the persons who play, we used several protections and safety measures such as valves and long gas hoses. These hoses are long enough, so there is a distance between the dance floor and the blowtorches. When the gas cylinder is opened and the candles are lit: there can be caused a reaction, which lead to a blowtorch.

Tools:

• drill
• drills (3 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 18 mm, 28 mm)
• plate scissors
• strippers
• nippers
• screwdrivers

Materials:

• steel tube (38mm x 42mm x 5mm and 8mm)
• solenoid valves (x4)
• gas relaxer
• gas bottle
• Sanivesk gas T-Piece (x3)
• Sanivesk gas tape
• Sanivesk intestine (7m)
• hose clamp (x20)
• pressure regulator
• Sanivesk hose connector (1/4 "& 1/2") (x8 and x4)
• screws (3,5 x 20)
• countersunk screw (4mm)
• hydraulic coupling 1/2"| 12L (x4)
• breech 1/2" (x4)

Because we have four squares with lights you can jump on, we need four big wires to connect gas, so we can cause on each side of the dance floor a blowtorch. We made four stations with each a candle, every time very protected. In the middle of the dance floor, we connected the four hoses onto one other hose, which is connected to a gas cylinder.

Tools:

• buzz saw
• lathe & chisels
• multi tool
• drill
• drills (3 mm, 4 mm, 4.5 mm, 18 mm, 28 mm)
• plate scissors
• strippers
• nippers
• soldering iron
• regular glue

• perspex plate (5mm)
• aluminium plate
• speaker cord (2x1,5mm)
• LED strip (15m)

For the wires of the lights, we did the same process four times. On the paper you can see the complete electrical combination. We made this connection so that there is only one way to cause a blowtorch: if the remote says 'green light', the green LED-lights will flash on the dance floor (thanks to the wires from the remote to the LED's). If, and only if, person B jumps on the green square during the seconds that person A still presses the green button on the remote, there will be a reaction (the aluminium touches one another). Because of the aluminium connection, the gas valves will open and get through the hoses. Than the candles make another reaction which lead to a great blowtorch on the 'green' side of the dance floor.

Tools:

• paint brush

Materials:

• varnish
• paint

Here are some pictures of the complete dance floor, wires and everything connected to each other. You can see how there is enough space between the gasometers and the dance floor. Safety first you know! At the end, we painted and varnished the wood, but this is optional ofcourse. The last photo shows how great the lights work.