Swiss Plexi

We met on Saturday night to work on our prototype. Our goal for the night was to complete the construction of the sorter.

We finished drilling the holes for the sorter and glued all the pieces together. We stacked them up and beheld our monster. And then for the moment of truth: we poured in a bunch of balls to test it. It was very loud and visually exciting. But the results were mixed: some of the second-smallest balls were sneaking through the holes into the bin for the smallest balls. We're going to work on that last level of sorting to make sure only the smallest balls pass through. We're also going to find some kind of strap to tighten around the entire sorter contraption – that will allow us to lift it and shake it as a unit.

So, we've got a little work left to do on the sorter, but it's a working prototype.

We determined the dimensions and cut the plexi pieces for our resonant ball receptacle. It's going to make a gorgeous trash can some day for some lucky person.

We attached the funnels to the pipes using hot glue and tape. They're solidly attached and working great.

And finally, we came up with a solution for the ball release mechanism. Pulling a string connected to each funnel will stretch a spring that will allow a piece of plexi to slide sideways, revealing a hole that balls can pass through. Releasing the string will cause the plexi to slide back into place as a barrier.

We plan to meet up on Tuesday night to go spring shopping, to build our resonant receptacle, and to put the release mechanism in place.

We're still waiting for the lazy susan to arrive, and when it does we can build a base. We've talked about how to incorporate a game mechanism into the play, and we're thinking of attaching a big old pink feather to the kitchen timer to add visual drama to the countdown. We don't have rules for gameplay yet, but we'll work that out when we come up with our performance plan.