Laser Cut Eiffel Tower: Design Update 4 – Inner Shell

Today I completed the inner shell to the Eiffel Tower design I’m working on here at CNCKing.com along with a foundation built to strengthen all the tower’s legs.

The last “building” I designed was my Ferris Wheel B about a year and a half ago! (animation below) I enjoyed the challenge but it didn’t have interlocking parts meeting at different angles… this complicates things dramatically as you have things meeting at 90 degrees at only one axis relative to the parts involved. People have done this through trial and error and it’s astonishing they were able to design their Eiffel Tower at all… so many hours cutting, refining a 2D line drawing, cut again… these other designers have far more patience than I do!

If you look closely at the design, you’ll see that the inner legs aren’t held-in properly – that’s the next thing on my mental list to fix and then to start working on the top caps which will be tricky. The issue is that they have to drop straight down (90 degrees to the surface this model is set on) and can’t come in at any angle as, although the legs are at an angle, they are coming in at four different angles. I got lots of ideas on how to solve this, the one I choose is the one that fits the model best. The platform will also contain two shell layers, an outer shell (angled) and inner elevator shaft (that will be 90 degrees relative to the surface making things easier).

The reason for the legs being put on a base is to make the model far stronger so that it can at least hold a little weight… this model isn’t heavy but things fall or drop and I didn’t want to make a model that was easily broken (within reason). Using this design feature, although not completely accurate, things are lock in place. Also makes assembly WAY EASIER as you won’t need clamps to hold everything in place till the glue dries.