Week 08: Composites

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

            This week I was wondering what I should make. For the past few weeks, it has been raining quite a lot. As a person in a wheelchair, going around while raining is quite difficult and often gets my pants wet. I thought about making a cover for my wheels. Often, these wheel covers cost from $100.00 to $150.00 for a pair. I used Rhino for the design. I measured the diameter of my wheel and the distance from the wheel to the seat. It was a bit difficult for me to measure the distance from my legs to the wheels as the length is very short

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

            I used shotbot to cut the foam. The edges were not smooth, but that was not the concern as it will be used to cover my wheels. They are bound to be dirty.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

             I used plastic wrap to wrap the foam. and used the roll to punch holes. I thought about punching holes before putting the wraps around my foam, but since the shape of the foam is quite regular.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

            I used 3 layers of burlap to over the foam. The mistake that I had was that I accidentally wrap it a bit around the foam so when it was all dryed up, it was a bit difficult to get the foam out. So be sure to have just enough to cover the front of the foam.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

Also I forgot to put the valve before I seal the whole foam, so I had to waste the plastic bag. One mistake I also had was because I had the valve in the middle of the burlap where the shape of my cover is, a residue shape of the valve was made when I cut it.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

One lesson I learned from vacuuming, is that you constantly have to shape the burlap as you vacuum them because it may not be vacuumed like you want to be. I used my fingers to shape it first and when they were quite settled, I used round ends of a sissor to refine the edges of the foam

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

The cover was just about the length to cover the front wheels! Now I don't have to worry about getting my pants wet on a rainy day. I don't know whether I could use them when it snows, but I will try!