“Reel” Progress!

Original prototype made with Xacto-sliced foam, wooden dowels and a whole lotta hot glue! Completely off-center, off-balance and every page was at its own angle. NOT good. I needed to see a real reel!

After a visit with the incredibly knowledgeable Todd Gustavson at the George Eastman House, I was able to make this sketch for Mark Reisch who thankfully agreed to help me create the 3D model.

Mark and Mike Buffalin IV put the final touches on the file...

...and just like magic, I hit print and the 3Ding began!

The exact piece I needed, hot off the press!

For the prototype reel, I decided to hand cut index cards using a laser-cut template, to make sure everything worked correctly before laser-cutting all the paper. That's three thousand teeny triangles...

The cuts worked well with the discs, but the pages stuck out at all different angles again!

This final touch made all the difference. Clamped all 1500 index cards together...

...and with some Tacky Glue and cloth...

...the pages were bound together...

...making insertion into the discs a piece of cake!

A big concern for this Mutoscope project was how I was going to build the reel.  Essentially, I needed hundreds of pages to wrap, Rolodex style, around a tube.  After meeting with Todd Gustavson at George Eastman House, and convincing Mark Reisch and Mike Buffalin to come along for the ride, I was in business! The above gallery is my progress on this very important step. And here’s a video of the result.