Pictures Oppy's Atom!

[Atomiklan]

Decided that if I am going to get a parrot named Oppy (Oppenheimer), it is mandatory that I get him an atom to play on. Since I am fairly handy and these seem hard to come by, especially sturdy in construction, I decided to make my own. This is just a first initial test to familiarize myself with the most efficient procedure of manufacture. The skeleton is made of 1/4" 304 Stainless Steel, and I have already ordered a 600' spool of 3/8" twisted 100% cotton (confirmed bird safe) rope. Last night I test rolled all the steel and did some stainless welding to build the first atom skeleton. They are incredibly strong! I really prefer all my stuff to be super industrial strength and this is no exception lol... I think I could probably sit on this atom haha. It is still lightweight though. This first version is the common 3 ring design, but I think going forward I will stick with the 4 ring design. Waiting on next shipment of steel to arrive for the next test. Also, for this go, I opted not to include the balls, but for future versions I will absolutely be giving it a try. Need to decide on the best bird safe wood for these and get them dyed and mounted before welding. This test will also help to check my math of length of rope needed. Wrapping these is going to be fun... haha

Ultimately this was just a first test so this one does have a few bugs as a result of the learning curve. Next few off the line will no doubt look MUCH nicer. Check back in a few days. I'll update this post with more pictures of the wrapping process once the rope arrive. I also will probably make a welded ring for the top that a chain can secure to. More pictures to come.

This first one will be given away as a present to Jen (rescue helping me get started) for all her help. Hopefully she doesn't read this forum too often or I have just spoiled the surprise Going to put a big bow on it and give it to her the next time I visit.

Thanks for looking and feedback always welcome!

 

[WendyN]

That looks great

 

[Laylatoo]

Looks awesome! Let me know if you make more to sell at some point....I'd buy one!

 

[WendyN]

Yes, let us know if you will be taking orders!

 

[Atomiklan]

Haha, not officially. Dont have enough time to start a bird toy business. At least not without a bird yet haha, but I did fully intend on making several to give a few away and try to sell a few others to at least cover part of the cost of the bulk purchases. Only problem with selling them is the material choices. I spared no expense on material as I was building them to my own personal liking (industrial strength) and as a result they would end up probably being more than the average person wanted to spend on one. As an example, the stainless steel alone for a 3 ring atom after shipping the raw materials is around $40. Factor in all the other materials, labor, etc. and then the shipping costs to you (big box) and it probably would end up being pretty expensive, but if some of you are still interested, I will see what I can do. First thing first though. Need to finish this test model. Thanks for the comments!

 

[javi]

Wow. Would love to have a few of those

 

[schnitzle]

It looks fantastic! Industrial strength fantastic even!

 

[NK_717]

Kylo & Pikachu say they want one! Atoms are fun- it looks great

 

[ode.to.parrots]

I am so impressed. I can barely screw two branches together to make a play gym, and then you're just like "Oh, let me just do a test run and weld this beautiful stainless steel atom, but don't worry, the next one will look better."

When you do finally get a bird, he is going to be so gosh darn spoiled! Haha.

 

[Sarahmoluccan]

It does look awesome! I agree with @ode.to.parrots you will have one spoiled bird

 

[Pipsqueak]

Looks great ! I can tell that this will be a spoiled bird and expensive , lol .

 

[Atomiklan]

Thanks for all the nice comments. Hope to have more pictures with next steps in the next few days.

 

[KimKim]

Nice job, it looks great!

 

[expressmailtome]

You did a great job making it!

 

[Tim]

Dude, you are going to be the BEST parrot owner. Oppy is out there waiting!

 

[Atomiklan]

Dude, you are going to be the BEST parrot owner.

Aww, thats very nice of you to say. I'm trying!

Thanks!

 

[Atomiklan]

Ok, got a few more updates on the atom progress (See pictures in order). The rope arrived today so I got busy wrapping. Steel for future atoms also came in too so I am ready to go on version 2.0 (more on that shortly ). I went ahead and cleaned up all the welds so they are nice and shiny. Then spent a quick moment on rough calculations to get the rope length needed. calculated 50' exactly, but with knot and cross over unknowns actual length came out to a little under 51'. Not too shabby . It should be noted that I intentionally cut way too much this first time in case my math was wrong. 60' to be exact. Once the rope was free from the spool, I did run into a few expected complications. Specifically rope twist. Straight out of the box, the rope required substantial untwisting which was expected as the manufacture noted. For this first go I manually untwisted the rope, however on the next go I will cut a more appropriate length and use a drill to quickly remove the twists. Once the rope was all ready to go, I first coiled it into four individual bundles to make wrapping a little easier. In retrospect, I will probably try a single larger bundle next time to avoid tangles. Sometimes hanging loops can get a little confusing when trying to pass multiple bundles through. I also found near the end of wrapping that a single bundle that is wrapped tight using the very end of the rope is the most useful as additional rope length can be deployed from the bundle as needed by just tugging on the wrapping side of the rope. The only downside to this method is as you pull more loops from the bundle, it will eventually loosen up, so occasional tightening is necessary to keep the bundle in tact.

As for the actual wrapping process, I did not do it in all one sitting as I had to answer some work calls, but I would say it took maybe 1 to 1.5 hours to complete the wrapping process. I started the wrap with a clove hitch at one of the cross points. One important thing I learned during this first build is to give yourself a little more of a tail at the start and do not tighten down the knot too tight at the beginning as you will need to get access to the knot again towards the end. Next time, I will give myself an additional 6" at the start and I may stick something like a piece of 1/4" rod in the knot so the knot can be cinched tight, but at the end, the rod can be slid out, instantly loosening the knot and making room for the rope end to slip back through. As for the direction I took while wrapping, this was actually something that I oddly have a lot of similar experience with. Part of my research project utilizes some equipment that contains a tubular metal structure that is identical to this atom. The tubular structure passes liquid nitrogen through it so it must be unobstructed from input to output, but in the exact same shape of the atom here. This made the wrapping process really easy! I just referenced my equipment to determine the optimal direction through the structure so I ended back where I started having hit every section. All with one single continuous piece of rope in case that was not clear. I know I am describing/making this out to be WAY more complex than it needs to be hahaha.

At the end I untied the original knot and fed the end of the rope back through and secured everything tight. The rope ends were then trimmed neatly. I'm waiting on some more materials to arrive in the mail tomorrow, but I will be adding the colored sub atomic particles too. In fact I opted to make this a real atom haha. Instead of hanging a random bird toy in the center, I designed a bird friendly nucleus made from the cotton rope, bird safe wood (and dyes), and a golf Wiffle ball. Specifically, I modeled the oxygen 18 isotope. I feel it should be safe enough, but I will let all the bird experts weigh in here on the design. Of course I don't expect the nucleus to last very long with the larger birds, but it should function to at least officially cement this version of the play stand as the "Oppy's Atom" version. In addition to the nucleus in the center, I took some measurements of the outer orbital diameter after the rope was added and tightened to make room for the electrons which will be added as well in the next version (2" diameter blue electrons). Unfortunately I'll have to settle with an inaccurate number (and size ratio lol) of electrons, but then again, EVERYTHING about this model of atom is wrong anyways so who cares hahaha.

As for some specifics on the nucleus design, I went ahead and modeled it in CAD first to make sure the idea would work and to ensure I bought the right diameter wooden spheres. The idea is to drill and counter bore all of the protons and neutrons. Each will be dyed accordingly (Green for neutrons, Red for protons). They will then be strung together marionette style with a knot at each end using 3/16 100% cotton rope arriving tomorrow. All the of ropes will converge out the top through a larger hole (Not depicted in CAD). I may braid the rope to attach to the underside of the orbits, or I may just immediately terminate it on top with a knot and a stainless steel carabiner so it may be hung with a chain inside. Not sure yet. I'll decide on what looks best this weekend perhaps.

Last picture is of the tree stand I just picked up the other day. I am finally expecting a feathered visitor in the next few weeks. Unfortunately (for those of you keeping up with my story), Lada the female ekkie will not be coming . She is very calm and well behaved and does really well with children and as a result, she is going down to a summer camp for several weeks. So instead of Lada coming to visit, a goffin cockatoo (don't know name yet) is staying instead. I have a LOT of mixed feelings about this. Really sad that Lada is not coming for one as a was seriously starting to considering an ekkie, but I am also really nervous about the Too coming. He is a recent rescue and had originally plucked. He's better now, but not quite as well behaved as Lada. Part of me was also looking forward to Lada as it would be a gentle introduction to parrots. I have heard this particular Too is quite talkative, especially in the morning and night. Part of me says this is EXACTLY what I need. A more real world example, however I also don't want to be immediately overwhelmed and put off all together. None of this matters though as I am just gonna do it and see what happens. Hopefully here in the next few weeks I'll upload some actual bird pictures . Wish me luck! Also, please give me some feedback on the atom progress. I will be uploading more pictures hopefully by the end of the weekend so check back one more time for the hopefully finished product.

Thanks again!
Andrew

 

[EbonyMemory]

Oh my gosh! that looks AMAZING!

 

[DQTimnehs]

Awesome!

 

[Laylatoo]

So awesome! Love it!!