Eli Whitney's "Cotton gin

[jamagica]

this is for a school project...must be done by the end of tomorrow...with texturing and possibly some animation...not to mention a brief description (late night up ahead).

 

This is it so far...many patches, much detail (main requirement is "realism" and "detail")

 

This is my basic reference:

 

 

and progress so far:

[jamagica]

Ok...I usually get a critique by now...but, here's more progress..please critique. I know it's an early stage, but just tell about anything on your mind...even if it's irrelevant! lol

[JDscruggs]

Looks great to me. Can't wait to get to that point myself.

[KenH]

Nice spikes. Are they geometry? There looks to be too many on the cylinder compared to the drawing. But it's not that big a deal. The belt could be difficult to do....in animation anyway.

 

Keep us posted. What are you doing reading this? Get back to work!

[Kamikaze]

Wow , this is gonna be cool looking............yes an animation of it in operation, excluding the cotton, that would be interesting though, maybe time consuming.

 

Michael

[NancyGormezano]

this is for a school project...must be done by the end of tomorrow

 

I am so curious - What Class is this for? - When I was in school I was doing projects with tongue depressors, flour, salt & water.

 

I do relate to the procrastinating & panic phases, tho.

 

Looks like you're doing a fantastic job - look forward to seeing the finished work.

[oakchas]

This may help....animated gin online

 

The big wheel looks more like it is covered in rope in the drawing... but the cross section (in the patent drawing) reveals teeth (like a saw blade)? Teeth would pull the cotton through a "comb" that would pluck the seeds... and what you have for spikes on the second wheel appear to be brushes in the original.

 

I'm with Nancy on this... are you sure you cant build it using a shoe box, some crayons, toilet paper rolls, and maybe some pipe-cleaners.... I think Nancy, we are dating ourselves, ay?

 

But, without the digression... looks like you are getting the gist of it in your models.

 

Oh, and this might help you with the belting and wheels... It was posted here but i cannot find the link so I uploaded my zip of the prj file... hope it helps and forgive me for not giving credit where it is due...[attachmentid=10061]

Bike_Chain.zip

[jamagica]

oakchas:

The reason I'm doing it in 3D is because it must be realistic....box and crayons won't cut for realistic and detailed....

 

thanks for the animated gin! I'm pretty sure the things on the big wheel are blades...It's fine if it's not exact, because the teacher probably doesn't know how it works...

 

thanks for the compliments and the prj file!

 

Nancy:

this is for history class. I have to make something that was involved in reconstruction...I'm making a cotton gin because industrialization spread throughout the south after the war...So I'm making a gin to represent the mills...

 

also, not to worry about procrastination! the teacher has moved the deadline for everyone to monday...talk about a big save!

 

Thanks for the compliments!

 

 

Kamikaze:

 

thanks for the comments....however the animation idea is the last priority on the list...if I have a lot of free time I'll animate it, even if I don't make it on time to the project.

 

Ken:

 

yes...those spikes are geometry...lol! The reason for that detail is because this is just for stills and detail...so why not make some true detail?? Hmmm..to me it seems that they're the same amount of spikes. Maybe not. I'm sure it'll be fine...thanks for your concerns, though! I'll be gettin' back to work after responding to the rest of these people

 

JD: (that's my nickname!)

 

thanks for the compliments! Just practice practice and practice...

 

My tip for you is that in mechanical modeling, don't look at your subject as a whole object...break it down into simple shapes...for example, in the cotton gin, the shape is basically a few cylinders and a big cube...then you think about details after you have broken down

 

Thanks for the comments guys....

 

Now, to get back to work!

[jamagica]

Now I'm working in the procrastination station...it's due tomorrow and this is how far I am: (I still have to texture it, too!)

[lazz]

Wooo! I'm all for procrastination! lol

Thats turning out quite nicely. The attention to detail is amazing. Does that have a high patch count? You're still goin to texture it? Wow. Thats quite a project. Has your teacher seen it yet? I'll bet you they'll be blown away by it. Awesome work! keep it up!

[jamagica]

you all will call me an amateur if I tell you the patch count...

the main reason for the high patches is the spikes and the brushes:

 

10,433...hahaha

 

after I'm done with this..I'm deleting it off right away

[jamagica]

almost done with modeling...

 

I usually am VERY open for critiques, but only suggest things that would be very easy to change (shifting some shapes, but not actually moving whole parts around, changing the size of something, etc.)

 

The reason I want filtered critiques is because I'm on a really tight schedule right now and if I tweak anything up very much more, I won't get texturing done.

[oakchas]

So, it's Monday... project was due today... didja get it textured?

 

It's Show and Tell time!

[ChrisThom]

I can't wait to see an animatio of it seperating the cotton.

[Elissa]

I made Eli Whitley's Cotton gin back in the day, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and we only had Walkman's that played these objects called tapes that... well, never mind. Mine was made of cardboard and cotton balls from under the sink.

 

I SUPPOSE, your creation is better.... but I still got an A.