Hi,
I am not saying that this is easy but I don't think this is too hard either. The trick
is knowing how the parts will interlock together. I watched a very interesting design
video not long ago that discussed the difference between Eastern and Western
thinking and how it affects design. When it came to joints, an interesting comparisson
was made stating that Western thinking was problem orientated, where as Eastern
thinking was context orientated. Think a picture of a fish. Western thinkers look at
the fish, but Eastern thinkers look at the environment that the fish lives in also.
This difference in thinking made a big difference between how carpentry evolved. In
general terms, the middle east is relatively stable from a weather and geologically
and so most joints are practical and straight forward, like finger joints and mitre
joints. Western joints tend to be strong and rigid so they don't break and in general
they work very well in the environment.
Take a place like Japan however and the carpentry joints are very different. They tend
to be more complex, interlocking arrangements and are much more flexible. This is
because Japan has been susceptible to earth quakes, typhoons and wide ranges of
temperature change. These joints are designed to be very strong, but they are much
more flexible to maintain their strength over time and changing environments. Take
a Pagoda - very flexible structure that will withstand an earthquake easily. Take the
equivalent Cathedral tower in the west, not many strong earthquakes and will stand
up to the small and medium ones over time. One BIG earthquake and they are piles of
rubble. Even stone buildings in Japan are designed to handle earthquakes reasonably
well.
Ok. Now that I have given it some context, lets have a look at your problem. The first
thing that comes to mind with your very kool looking Gaming Chair that looks like a
Scorpion is that a Scorpion tail is a series of interlocking segments. Depending upon
the context, engineers look at load bearing structures all of the time, and some of the
simplest structures have excellent load bearing capabilities. The one that instantly
came into my mind when I looked at this was interlocking parts like one of those bridges
you build from Paddle Pop sticks (Americans have Popsicles, we have Paddle Pops, same
animal but different colour).
Have you ever taken a ladder and put a plank through the rungs? In one direction it will
simply rotate around the rung and there is no strength. If you rotate in the other direction
then it will lock in place and be very strong. You can not only walk on it, but if you have
a ladder and plank strong enough you can put another ladder on the other end of the plank
and build a bridge.
Your Scorpion tail just simply needs a similar set of self supporting joints so that
the strength is over and down. I would also suggest that for safety that you have
flexible joints that interlock somehow so that if a lifting force was put onto the
"tail" it will not collapse.
I would strongly recommend that you do a little research on Japanese Joinery
and have a look at some of the amazing and extremely robust joints out there.
I will attach this one for you to take apart and look at.
If this is for your Portfolio then off you go and do some research. That is one of the
purposes of a Portfolio. I would be very interested to see what you come up with
for your Scorpion Chair.
Cheers
Andrew
