Kid's project: Origami mobile with bamboo skewers

thingiverse

This is a fun project to do with kids. Make some small origami decorations, or anything else small that could be hung on a mobile, and use 3D printed clasps on bamboo skewers to attach the objects, sliding the claps as needed for balance. The mobile pictured here hangs above my son's bed, and he enjoys watching it (and blowing on it) while lying in bed. The 3D printed skewer clasps are designed for the long (10-inch) skewers, which are 3mm in diameter. The short ones are thinner. Use the long ones; you can always cut them down. The clasps give stability to the balance of the mobile. The problem with bamboo skewers is that they are straight, and simply tying threads onto them results in a mobile that is unstable and difficult to balance. Ease of balancing arises when the tie-points on the ends of the skewer are lower than the tie point in between, forming a dihedral angle between the three tie points. Instead of this arrangement:  We have this, where the clasps on the skewer rod offset the tie points from the rod:  The dihedral angle between the tie points increases the stability of balance. The clasps can be slid along the rod for fine-tuning the balance. When constructing a mobile, it is best to create all your hanging objects first. They can be small paper airplanes or other origami objects, small jewel pendants, cardboard cutouts, 3D printed space ships, or anything that has a hole in it to suspend by a thread. After creating the objects and printing the clasps, plan out your mobile, and start building it. 1. Slide three clasps onto each skewer rod from the pointy end. 2. Clip off the pointy end, and if necessary, cut your skewer rods to size. 3. The hardest part is tying the threads to the clasp holes. Start constructing the mobile from the bottom, because every tie point above must balance the weight of everything below.