This week, I put my effort towards the challenge of creating a full-scale prototype of the continents. Due to the accuracy needed to get the lasers to work and the fact that it is easier to make corrections now than later, I wanted to create an in between of the maquette made last week and the final project. In the end, the prototype I made has the same base as the final draft, but without all the details that make it pretty and easy to use.

My biggest concern was my idea to use nuts and bolts to allow for easy repositioning of mirrors without sacrificing rigidity. However, they worked as planned, albeit with an immense struggle tightening the locknuts and a longtime spent perfectly adjusting each mirror.

Although I succeeded where I thought I would fail, I still found a way to fail anyways. The problem lied in the sketch I used to mark where the holes would go. I ended up forgetting to add ones for the east of North America and the west of Africa. Additionally, I learned that the African and Eurasian continents were too close and needed to be separated. Both of these were fairly straight forward fixes though since I have not yet made my final draft. I just updated my drawings in Inkscape and made temporary holes using a knife and screwdriver.

After I did this, I decided to plan out the rest of my project. This entailed creating 3D printed laser holders, the case that would hold the picture, and adjusting where my bolt holes would go based on what I found with my prototype.