Final Project: The Making

Our first task was to make the body of the puppet. First, I drew a sketch which was roughly the size of that we wanted:

After sketching, it was time to design in SolidWorks!

 

 Now, I'm a huge fan of splines in SolidWorks, so most everything in this design is made with splines! I don't know why, but I find using splines and auto-dimensioning is really quick and easy. This design only took about 15-20 minutes, including a few iterations of shape until we found the "perfect bod."
Next, and this is my favorite part, we sent the file over to the laser cutter to be printed. We used relatively thin Delrin because our puppet did not have to be particularly resilient. After the printing, we drilled holes for hinges. We wanted the puppet to have easily movable joints and be authentically marionette-ish, so we used some stripped wire soldered into loops as hinges.

TADA!!