3D printed hub rings

Last year I purchased steel tire wheels for winter tires but they didn't fit my car exactly. Wheels have a center hole that fits over the hub of the car. Typically, this hole fits perfectly and allows you to quickly fit the wheel over the studs. This kind of wheel is called hubcentric and makes for a foolproof install.

Lugcentric wheels have the same holes for the wheel studs but the center hole is larger. Manufacturers can make a smaller number of varieties since one wheel design can fit a larger variety of cars. However, since the center hole is larger, it is trickier to line up the wheel studs in the direct center of the lug holes. A wheel that is not perfectly centered can cause vibration leading to steering instability and, potentially, loosening of the lug bolts.

Hub rings are spacers that you can use to fit over the hub that line up the center wheel hole so the lug studs fit in the exact center. They are typically made of plastic since they do not offer any structural integrity; they are merely used as placement spacers. This makes them ideal for 3D printing from home. Thingiverse offers many user designs:

When I getting ready to swap my wheels this year I had forgotten the measurements of my wheels and, of course, hadn't written them down anywhere. So I took some rough measurements of the center hole and modified a design from Thingiverse. 10 minutes later I had a prototype that was a little loose, so I tweaked the numbers and printed another draft prototype. Once everything lined up I upped the quality settings, set the infill to 100% for stability, and I was on my way.

I thought this was a nice injection of the iterative design process and definitely saved me a trip to the car parts store or weeks in delivery time. 

Learning by cheating and breaking things

 I've been hit with a wave of nostalgia recently. Does this theme song bring you back any memories?

3-2-1 Contact was one of many astonishingly brilliant educational shows that had a huge impact on my childhood. It came out right when I was an impressionable kid that was interested in a bunch of different things. It normalized the excitement of science and technology and made for fun viewing because it included dramatic elements like The Bloodhound Gang.

In addition to television, 3-2-1 Contact had a printed magazine that included a section at the end for BASIC programming. I would borrow the magazine from my school library and either type in every single line with the one Commodore 64 or take it home and try it on my 286 (complete with TURBO button!).

It would take multiple compiles and dozens of syntax errors before I could get it working right. And that's when I learned I could cheat by understanding what I was rote copying. If I could manipulate a number here, a command there, I could change my score or entire elements of the game.

Today I put that concept into practice and built an escape/puzzle room in CoSpaces for my Grade 5-7s. I used simple CoBlocks to make responsive doors and moving platforms and bridges that blocked the user's path. I challenged them to complete the room, and if needed, to re-code it and break anything they wanted. I was hoping that by remixing and cheating they would learn how they could manipulate the set of coblocks I used. It worked well and everyone had a great introduction to VR.

I remembered these experiences after reading Greg Baugues' same experiences with his daughter and marvelled at the similar nature of our circumstances. I wonder if watched The Edison Twins too?