Post by duke on May 12, 2024 14:58:29 GMT -5
Now some of my design efforts are starting to move beyond the wheel itself, to the surroundings of the wheel. Today was the day that everything came together to be able to move my Wheel upstairs. Because we're just a couple of big kids living here, we have a game room where a formal living room and dining room should be. Because priorities.
A couple of weeks ago, while playing, my wife and I tested various heights for the wheel for spinning while seated, by playing possibly the largest game of Jenga ever underneath the table, using cross-stacked pieces of 2x4 lumber to support a folded card table. We arrived at what we both agreed was a "feels good" height. Last weekend, I cut down a card table to that height. It is very convenient that the beige vinyl of a stock card table is completely on-brand with the vinyl bar/"armrest" on the show. Maybe I can get a couple of wooden arches to put between the legs of the table?
The good news for those looking to build one of these wheels is that I managed to move it up a narrow flight of stairs without fully disassembling it. I just took all of the wedges, center mat, and player podiums off, bungied it to the card table it was on (that already had its legs folded down for the aforementioned height testing). I was able to carefully carry it, and at an angle when necessary. From there I was able to slide it onto its new table. Re-tightened some joints and it was all good. 
The television pictured will host the puzzle board (sorry didn't have time to set that up fully for pics). And I finally found a use for that tiny staircase that my cat refused as a scratching post. 
The second picture is the view as seated in the middle (Player 2 spot) of the sofa that is there.
Right now we have a generic palm tree picture hanging behind the sofa that neither of us care about. We're planning to do something fun and on-brand with both the general theme of the room and WoF by hanging up gold-framed red, yellow, and blue artwork pieces that invoke both games in general and the WoF contestant backdrops. Probably something like a Mario-Pikachu-Sonic headshot sequence. Or maybe Red Ghost chasing Pac-Man chasing Blue Ghost.
You might notice that the podiums are across from the seats. The reason for this is that if the podiums are on the same side as the seating, the pointers interfere with player hands spinning the wheel, since player hands are not 3:10 scale like the wheel and the spokes are a bit shorter than 3:10 scale anyway. Another advantage to this "pointer-across" layout in the future is that if and when I add electronic scoreboards to the podium, the players will be able to see them
When not in use, the entire table fits underneath the air hockey table, so that when respectable company comes over (like that ever happens), it doesn't look like we run an underground gameshow ring from our living room 
. I have a draft design for a cloth cover for the whole table and wheel, too. I might commission a friend to sew the cover, and then I'd do a HTV transfer on it. I'd love to add some kind of drawer system under the table for storage of wedges and tokens. Thinking about that one... So many plans!
. I have a draft design for a cloth cover for the whole table and wheel, too. I might commission a friend to sew the cover, and then I'd do a HTV transfer on it. I'd love to add some kind of drawer system under the table for storage of wedges and tokens. Thinking about that one... So many plans!Oh and speaking of plans, I have some good news regarding releasing the models for 3D printing and piece cutting. I've been working in my free time over the past week to get everything ready for release. There are just a couple more tweaks to be made on the Cura project files I'm providing, a little more writing to do regarding general instructions, and a general end-to-end review to make sure everything looks reasonable. There are a total of 26 STL files and 4 SVG files slated for release, with instructions provided for using each file to produce printed/cut pieces, and then instructions for assembling all of the pieces together, as well as a Master Bill of Materials and Tools for the project and estimated print times for the project. Wrangling all of this information together in a form that is maintainable as well as usable has been a feat in itself. No promises, but hopefully this week?
