- \n
- 1 6oz bottle of acrylic paint [black]<\/li>\n
- 1 6oz bottle of acrylic paint [white]<\/li>\n
- 2 bottles of Elmer Rubber Cement<\/li>\n
- 1 hot wire foam cutter [uses 2 D cell batteries]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nI used rubber cement as my adhesive since I knew that it could flex without breaking and that it wouldn’t melt my foam too badly when applied.<\/div>\nWhen the foam sheet arrived, I got to work. Using a bio lab sample storage tower of a good size, I marked out a set of cutting lines and took the hot wire to the sheet.<\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-11-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-14-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nAfter enough pieces of foam were cut to get a reasonable width, the layers were adhered to one another using the cement. During my first test of the cement, I found that using the normal brush applicator did not allow me to get enough of the stuff on the foam at a time, so I ended up pouring the jar of rubber\u00a0cement\u00a0into a plastic squeeze bottle with a tapered nozzle.\u00a0This\u00a0was I would just draw a think line of glue that would stay on the surface of the foam long enough for me to put the pieces together.<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-16-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-17.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-18-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nEventually I got the foam slices into two solid pieces that the flex sensor would then reside in. Since the actual sensor is quite small, I taped a few inches of broken acrylic scrap onto each side so that the overall working length of the sensor was more formidible.\u00a0To prevent sliding , one side of the sensor was glued to the foam while the other side was left free to extend and contract during flexing.<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-20-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nAfter inserting the sensor, the two larger foam halves were glued together and the entire\u00a0assembly\u00a0was let to cure overnight.<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-12-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nThe following day, the completed tower was coated in a layer of grey paint. This was applied using a large foam brush in broad strokes.<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/IMGD3x00_B12\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Picture-21-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nAfter the grey coat had some time to dry, black windows with white banisters were added to the broad sides of the structure to give a more building-like appearance.<\/div>\nBut I’m going to wait for the paint to fully dry before I take pictures, so stay tuned!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the flex sensor controller, a flexible foam shell in the shape of a building would pull the project together in terms of concept. Having the user smash a small building to make a film-monster smash an entire city creates … Continue reading