Star Trek: TNG - Tensegrity Table by ImperialWalker

Last crawled date: 3 years, 5 months ago

I was creating a Geordi La Forge visor for a friend and thought it would be awesome if it "floated" for display. Looking around the "verse" I found this table and really liked how the arm options looked.
I decided to remix it and add a Star Trek themed spin on it for the visor to sit on.
To create this, I printed it out, sanded it and prepared it for filler primer using Spot Putty. I then glued the pieces together and did some final prep.
I then took fishing line and started to join it all up. This was the most difficult because I was having issues keeping the tension on the strings while I got it all hooked up. To solve this, I drilled holes in some small plastic tubing. I then fed the fishing line up through the hole, through the plastic tube, then back down into the hole where I tied a knot.
This allowed me to pull on the knot end to add tension on the strings (as the plastic would bind on the string). Once I had it all measured and tensioned, I could drop some superglue in the holes and add a little "kicker" to cure it instantly.
I then did a final round of spot putty on the holes and sanded them as flush as I could. After a final primer, paint, and sealer, it was done.
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If I were to do this again I would change a few things.

I would probably try to make a tension system on the bottom to help aid in putting it together.


I originally modelled caps to place over the strings in the top, but they didn't work. I would probably find a way to explore this again as the sanding result wasn't as perfect as I would like.

I had no idea how much weight it could take when I created it. The visor (because my local hobby store only had rods and not tubes) was heavier than intended after paint, resin, etc. and so the strings buckle slightly. Had I used tubes it wouldn't have been an issue.
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I've only started to dabble in 3D modelling, so hopefully it works well for everyone. Let me know if you have any issues and I'll try and fix it.