CNC Plans for Kids Modular Building Set?

[Eric DeSilva]

I was recently at the Chicago Children's Museum (CCM) where they had a "Skyline" exhibit for kids that featured interactive modular building parts. Here's a couple links:

http://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.or...rience/skyline
http://www.gyroscopeinc.com/ChicagoSkyline.php

The latter link is the private contractor that created the exhibit. There's also a FAQ (http://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/skyline_FAQs.html) that indicates the building parts are not commercially available and the alternatives they provide seem... poor.

I've now got access to a 4x8 ShopBot and was thinking that creating some kind of modular building toy for my 6 year old would be fun. The CCM parts are mostly straight 1 1/3" x 1 1/3" square stock with holes every 1" on alternating faces. They also have some corner braces and plates with holes allowing other angles to be created. Obviously, I can't do something 100% similar on the ShopBot easily from sheet stock, since I can't create the holes on the alternate faces. I did think about just making them in the traditional, non-CNC way, but I started wondering whether other plans might exist that were for sheet stock. Anyone know of anything?

The alternative is that I create something. Making straight pieces with holes on even centers is no big issue and making plates for attaching things at 90* or other angles in the XY plane is pretty easy. The issue I'm having is finding a good way to go from XY to Z. I suppose I could just make some "L brackets," but thought I'd see if anyone else has thoughts along these lines?

[William Adams]

There was an article in _Mechanics Illustrated_ ages ago, which has resulted in an opensource/creative commons licensed design:

http://www.linkerlogs.com/

On a smaller scale there's Gridbeam: http://gridbeam.biz/
or smaller still: http://bitbeam.org/

Cardboard version optimized for girls: http://www.roominatetoy.com/from-car...a-modular-toy/

[Eric DeSilva]

Thanks--I actually think the CCM thing may have been loosely based on the Gridbeam designs. That is more what I'm looking for, although it looks easier to just make them in the shop rather than using CNC. The linkerlogs look interesting, but it looks like it would chew up a lot of wood quickly. I think I may just hit the drawing board and see what I can come up with...

[Ted Reischl]

Mount a pair of low profile vises on your machine to machine on all four sides.

[Nathan Birrell]

On first glance, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to create a fixture for the cnc to be able to drill one set of holes, manually turn the piece, and then drill the next set of holes.

My second idea would be to use the cnc to create a template to drill the holes using a drill or router with bushing.

Third idea is that a dowelling jig would work.

I am having trouble visualising what you think is required to go from the XY plane to the Z plane. Having not seen all the pieces in the exhibit is probably my issue.

This is an incredibly slick idea and I am filing it away for when I have a child of a right age. Keep us updated on what you end up doing.

-Nate