Open Sourcce Hardware : Circular cog to knitting hoop

Posted in Textiles

Week 8: Open Source Hardware Assignment

Circular cog to knitting hoop

Being a knitter, I just had to follow one of the other ideas spoken about this week which was hacking the circular knitting machine.

Here is my inspiration gallery and a bit of 1st had research. I like the idea of combining the knitting and weaving in the last 3 images.

My tests and designs so far

Last year Anastasia created a mechanical cog made from clear acrylic, so I decided this could be the base of a circular machine. The nice thing about the cog is that it has teeth grooves on both sides, which means that knitted could be made on the inside and outside, it could also created a ribbed knitted textile when you use alternating hooks.

Assistant tutor Noor and I measured the cogs and using the Dim function in Rhino, we added in all the measurements after we had placed the imaged as the background (just as you would in illustrator). Find the shape of one of the teeth we used Array to arrange the around the circle.

To create a tooth, I began by extruding the tooth curve upwards on the z axis, then I used the polyline tool to create a crochet-hook-like curve, I then ExtrudedCurve outwards along the x axis to intersect the first shape. The using Split, Boolean and Trim I have create da shape so far that will be able to be 3D printed. As you can see from the image with the purple teeth, using the Array and the centre point being the middle of the circle.

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As an experiment to create some kind of knitting from it, using the wire as teeth, this initially worked. But then after a few loops, the wire became loose and it became uneven and difficult to manage.

I think in the future, I would like to edit my digital design and try to print or cut some teeth for the cog, then test it as part of a separate project, but I’d like to look into more tool hacking in the for sure.

 


Other links whyich my research led me to via Tool Hacking searches

  • http://gluejeans.com/
  • Textile Academy Student called Saverio Silli http://saveriosilli.fabcloud.io/fabricademy-saveriosilli/class08.html

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