Aka: Steven’s Tiny Passive-House.
Client: Personal project; evenings and weekends
Specs: 2 inches of exterior polyiso insulation, continuous air and water barrier, standing seam roofing, cedar T&G + 26ga steel siding, and about 3,876 lessons learned 😅

Above: this tinyhouse is preferred over a normal house by 9 out of 10 flying insects
Below: it’s bigger on the inside!!!

Above: as an expert-level materials hoarder, I’ve been carrying the piece of aluminum (bright metal around the vent hood) around with me since 2010 😂😭. It was very satisfying to finally cut it up and put it to good use.

CREDITS
Thanks to all the kind folks who’ve helped me out along the way: raising walls, banging nails, carrying heavy stuff, yelling insults and encouragement. In no particular order:

• Mom & Dad
• Mel
• Kelly
• Dan
• Sid
• Fred
• James
• Wes & Caitlin
• Olivia

Please send me an angry text if I left your name off the list! 🙏

Goals

Take a stack of exhibit ideas dreamt up by the Education staff, and turn them into an exhibit in one year, on a tight budget.  The exhibit must be movable so that the exhibit hall can be used for large rental events.

Results

Science & Main is one of the most popular exhibits at the Museum, and was achieved at a fraction of the cost of most other exhibits in the museum.  See the captioned photos below for details and process photos…

The Explora-inspired marble wall is adapted for MSC's needs: large plastic balls instead of marbles, and more durable components.

A photo of the marble wall shortly after opening. I added rubber edge-protectors and replaced the wooden pegs with plastic.

The bicycle gearing activity allowing visitors to compare the differences in gear ratios.

Instructions for the paper airplane launcher

We prototyped and tested the paper airplane launcher to determine the best layout for the paper airplane activity.

A view of the airport control tower with launchers in the background

The 'Food fight' catapult. The device is quite precise: if you determine the correct variable to hit a given target, you will hit it reliably with those variables.

Some visitor creations

More visitor creations

A view of the bike gearing activity and the bike shop facade.

Initial concept rendering

Revised concept rendering, after construction methods and components were refined, Science & Main.

Styling detail, which informed the construction methods.

Logos, desiged by intern Qian Zeng

Setting up the facades with the help of a budget-friendly gantry crane. The yellow scaffolding was later used as part of the backdrop of the construction site.

Oops, sorry George...

Guts of the paper airplane launcher

The marble wall pieces were built using this setup. A pin-router attachment was used for the curved pieces.

Cole demonstrating some of the high-tech tools we used

It turns out handwheels with revolving handles are not MSC-kid-proof, so we added keyways to fixed-handle handwheels. In this photo: enlarging the bore with a boring bar.

Adding a keyway with the lathe, since we did not have an arbor press.

We initially used an off-the-shelf pulley as the drive wheel in the paper airplane launcher, but it was quickly shredded. In this photo, machining a new wheel, which held up well.

Sub-Projects

View these projects in more detail:

Drop Tower
Pipe Organ

The Drop Tower enables visitors to repeatably drop a racquetball 20 feet onto an angled surface. The angle and material of the surface can be changed, enabling users to experiment with the 2 variables and discover how they affect the trajectory and bounce height of the ball. The targets provide a goal for visitors to aim for, though many simply experiment on their own.

Process

We built and tested several prototypes to determine whether or not our plans were visitor-friendly, the reliability of the ‘dropper’ mechanism, and the feasibility of the chain conveyor.  See images below for more details…

Challenges

• Reliability was a serious concern since some of the working parts are 20 feet in the air, and difficult to access.
• The height of the design was difficult since the museum lacks an appropriate lift or convenient ceiling lift points.  The shop ceiling is not much over 8 feet, and the freight elevator is very small, so the components were built in sub-assemblies, test-fit and finished in the shop, and fully assembled on the exhibit floor

Design Details

• Gear reduction and a rotary damper prevents visitors from spinning the Prism in an uncontrolled fashion
• Controls for steps 1,2, and 3 (Load, Adjust, Drop) are arranged in sequential order for intuitive operation
• An angle indicator makes the experiment replicable

Detail of bounce-height scale

Detail of prism rotation indicator

Detail of top module and electrical boxes

Detail of user controls

Our first prototype was designed to test some of the mechanical elements, and see how visitors would interact with the component. We found that having 3 different ball types was too much for most visitors, so we eliminated the wiffel ball and golf ball, and kept the racquetball.

Testing to determine the trajectory of dropped balls

2nd prototype to determine reliability of top module mechanism. The testing revealed some reliability issues that we were able to solve before the Drop Tower was installed.

Testing the 2nd prototype at full height to determine how the chain would act. Thankfully, we found no problems!

I completed the final Overall design in Rhino at the same time Cole was completing the Top Module design in Solidworks. I then combined our designs and completed final construction drawings in Solidworks.

Fabrication in the shop

We had to set up during off-hours, since the museum was open 7 days a week

Karl helping with final electrical hookups before final assembly

Construction Drawings

Below are examples of construction drawings I created with Solidworks.  They were given to a commercial welding company, who fabricated and delivered the pieces.

Goal

Build a kid-proof pipe organ with exposed inner workings.  As far as I know, this is the only pipe organ in the world that is available for public use.

Design Details

• Kid-proof keyboard with 1-piece plastic keys
• ‘Drop the bass’ button for the big zinc pipe
• All mechanisms visible

Detail of the pipes, donated by David Storey

The moving valves are visible from the player's perspective as she presses the keys

Detail of regulator, blower, and electronics

Detail of kid-proof keyboard

Illustrator rendering of the design, before I handed design and fabrication responsibilities to Cole.

Goal

The Spectrum exhibit sponsor requested that we include a giant ‘Lite Brite.’  I thought that we could do even better and create a color-changing version, but the complexity and cost of the obvious solution (RGB LEDs and rotary encoders) was prohibitive.  I invented a simple mechanism that consists of 4 parts per peg (2 custom parts, an o-ring, and a dowel pin), and has proven reliable over the years.

Design and Manufacture

Each peg assembly would go through thousands of cycles, and there would be a couple thousand peg assemblies, each with a potential for failure, so I took extra steps to ensure longevity.  See the photos below for more details…

A Light Mosaic created by artist Abbey Hoffman as a social-media promotion

Visitor creations

Visitor creations

This testing jig was used to test the reliability of a carrier. It simulated an estimated 5 years of use. I made a small change to the design based on this testing.

I used the in-house ShopBot CNC machine to cut out all custom pieces

I tracked the parts in batches and coordinated with volunteers to conduct final assembly.

Construction drawing of a finished module. The final wall consisted of about 20 100-peg modules.

Goal

Create an exhibit that empowers visitors to explore the science of light and color. See the captions of the images below for more detail:

Artwork in foreground created by Lansing artist Abbey Hoffman

Light Challenge component: I worked with an intern to create the meters, which measured the amount of light concentrated on the photocell. When enough light was concentrated, the meter would turn from red to green.

The table was designed with an array of small holes so that meters and barriers could be easily moved.

Hanging edge-lit graphics, created with the CNC router

Control panel for the light-painting component

I was responsible for the electronics on the color-mixing activity. We wanted a reliable point-source LED for crisp shadows and zero-maintenance. I sourced and fabricated the LED circuitry and kid-proofed the potentiometers.

Final construction drawings, created in Solidworks

Final construction drawings, created in Solidworks

Final construction drawings, created in Solidworks

Goal

Take a pile of electronics that used to be an exhibit, and give them a second life.

Challenges

The company that originally built the interactive would not return e-mails or calls, so I had to decode configuration files and wade through extraneous hardware to get things working

I exposed the electronics in an acrylic-faced cabinet so visitors could get a sense of how the motion-sensing technology worked.

Hardware and software testing in the shop

Goals

Design and build portable activities that demonstrate hydraulics in action

Design Details

• Challenge: Facilitators can set up a challenge, such as saving a metal toy dinosaur from a vat of acid, and the user moves the magnet to complete the challenge
• Durability: I wanted to make the activities out of everyday materials, but it still had to be durable enough to withstand being disassembled and packed for school visits.  The devices didn’t need to be bombproof because a staff facilitator mediated the activity at all times.
• Service: I used shoulder screws, bushings, and threaded inserts (tee-nuts) to make service as easy as possible.  The syringes are held by a press-fit collar and can be removed without tools.

Goals

• Build demonstration devices for the MSC Traveling Science Program, which visits schools in Maryland and surrounding states and performs science shows on stage for large audiences.
• Improve on older designs, which were difficult to set up and take down, and just didn’t work very well
• Keep items compact for easy transport

Design Details

• We used simple yet durable materials to make the experiments more relatable, especially since audience members would not be able to touch the experiments.
• Designed to be maintainable by Education staff, who may not have mechanical experience

Pendulum snake box. The snake comes off the stands and straight into the box. The box is divided to prevent tangling.

Pendulum snake string length adjustment jig

Newton's cradle in action

Detail of the string adjusters. The nylon washer is easier on the fishing line than metal, and is registered to prevent rotation while the cap screw is tightened.

Newton's cradle box

Newton's cradle box

The stands are designed for quick setup and takedown.

CO2 gun demo