Intention : The intent of my project is the create a holder for the various piece of equipment I would need at a fencing competition, while taking more vertical instead of horizontal space. When I am competing, I am required to have spares of certain equipment, such as body cords, mask cords, and weapons. I want to make a holder that can hold all of these things efficiently, but also easily retrievable and movable.
Research + Context : Part of my inspiration and context for this project originated from a design I saw at an event at Penn State this year, where the fencer had three pvc tubes with blades held together by a pvc ring. I intended to make it more versatile by adding places to put body cords [long wires about 4ft long] and mask cords [about 1.5ft long]. PVC tubes are standard weapon holders in fencing, so I planned my research around fitting ½ in and ¾ in PVC tubes.
Aesthetic Inspiration : The aesthetic of the holder wasn’t anything specific, but when I was designing the piece I liked the pyramidal design with sharp edges. It felt very geometric and modern, which I really liked.
Sketch Your Project Below :
Stage 1
Stage 2
Process + Procedure :
In the course of designing this holder, I mostly had an idea of what the final design would look like. I went through several iterative steps where I refined the tubes and hooks on the Cad file. Making the tubes angles correctly was difficult since it was hard to place the tubes specifically where I wanted them to tangent to the base of the design.
Document & Reflection :
The print ended up a bit smaller than expected, so the PVC tubes do not fit the holes well. During the refinement of the concept, I chose to remove the hole meant for another pvc tube for the mask. If I added the mask, the design would be too heavy and would break easily.