Rainbow Abacus

This is the second version of Abacus having 3D printed beads and electrical wire duct /casing as frame. This Abacus is different from the previous version - PVC Abacus. You can check out this previous version by clicking the link below:

https://www.instructables.com/PVC-Abacus/

To make this Abacus more impressive I used acrylic colors to paint the beads. The idea of colors combination comes from colors of rainbow. As the rainbow consists of 7 colors, this abacus also consists of 7 rods.

Abacus:- The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It consists of rows of movable beads, or similar objects, strung on a wire. They represent digits. One of the two numbers is set up, and the beads are manipulated to perform an operation such as addition, or even a square or cubic root.

The soroban (counting tray) is an abacus developed in Japan. It is derived from the ancient Chinese suanpan, imported to Japan in the 14th century. Like the suanpan, the soroban is still used today, despite the proliferation of practical and affordable pocket electronic calculators.

The soroban is composed of an odd number of columns or rods, each having beads: one separate bead having a value of five, called go-dama ("five-bead") and four beads each having a value of one, called ichi-dama ("one-bead"). Each set of beads of each rod is divided by a bar known as a reckoning bar. The number and size of beads in each rod make a standard-sized 13-rod soroban much less bulky than a standard-sized suanpan of similar expressive power. The number of rods in a soroban is always odd and never fewer than seven. (Source:- Wikipedia)

This Rainbow Abacus consists of seven rods and 35 beads painted with the seven colors as that of a Rainbow.

·

• Electrical wire duct/casing (1 meter long)
• Super Glue
• RO Water System pipe (110 cm long)
• Acrylic Paint box

Tools

• Mini hacksaw
• Measuring tape/ scale
• Vernier Caliper Digital
• Drill Machine
• 3D Printer

For the frame of the Rainbow Abacus, we need to cut Electrical wire duct/casing according to following dimensions:

1. Electrical wire duct/casing of length = 23 cm (total =2, Upper and bottom bars)

2. Electrical wire duct/casing of length = 15.5 cm (total =2, side bars)

3. Electrical wire duct/casing of length = 20 cm (total =1, reckoning bar)

All these parts constitute the frame of Rainbow Abacus. At the corner of duct make a cut at 45 degrees so as to make frame perfect.

To cut Electrical wire duct/casing, I used a Mini Hacksaw having number of 32 teeth per inch.

For making holes on PVC pipe, I used drill machine. Total 7 holes are made on one side of two Electrical wire duct/casing having length = 23 cm, each hole size is 7.0 mm and the distance between each hole is 25 mm.

On one Electrical wire duct/casing (20 cm), which act as reckoning bar, holes are made on both sides (7 holes each side).

The most important part of Abacus is beads. These beads should slide on Rod properly and have some grip.

These beads made with the help of 3D Printer. I have printed the beads in a set of 5 pieces and 10 pieces but you can print all 35 pieces at once using slicing software. Total 35 beads are required. 5 bead for each rod with 7 different colors of Rainbow. I used White PLA Filament.

All 35 PVC beads are painted with acrylic colors. The colors of the rainbow are: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

I have very limited colors so, I prepared Violet color by mixing following colors:-

Blue Color + Red Color + White Color = Violet color.

The STL file of the beads and gcode file attached below:

The RO Water System pipe (length=15cm, diameter= 7mm) act as the Rod/column of this Abacus. We need 7 pipes (length= 15cm) for this Abacus.

Assemble all frame parts such that the holes of all three ducts aligned. The corners of one duct is glued with the another duct with the help of Superglue.

Insert a pipe with beads one by one through the holes. Above reckoning bar (middle bar) insert one bead and below it insert four beads. Take the help of images.

Make three black dots on the first, third and seventh bar having its own significance.

After inserting all pipes, join the bottom duct of the frame with the help of superglue.

Now that’s all. The Rainbow Abacus is ready to use.

Example 1:- Representation of digits 23 on the PVC Abacus.

Just slide two beads on the ones and tens place to the reckoning bar.

Example 2:- Addition of two numbers 23 and 51

Input your first number by entering 23 on the abacus by pushing up three beads in the ones place, two in the tens place. Now enter the second number by pushing up one bead in the ones place and pushing tens bead (value=5) above to Reckoning bar.

Count your beads to get the answer:- 23+51 = 74

You can find how to use it following this link:-

http://m.wikihow.com/Use-an-Abacus

Thanks for watching.