Nazareth Prep Element Summer Camp – 2018
Project Overview
Participants in Nazareth Prep’s Element summer program designed, built and created technological features for the pantry box, where members of the community can both donate and retrieve food.
Day 1 – Research
The first day we found blessing boxes in the local area to take note of both the design and effectiveness of these boxes. We also determined to build our box in Aliquipa by a local coffee shop as we determined through our research that these boxes are best implemented at the social centers of communities.
Week 1 – Prototyping Design
Once we had a better grasp of the task at hand, we went to the drawing boards and created 1/5th scale models of the blessing box out of foam core. Using these scale models, we decided on the dimensions and look of our blessing box. We also had some fun understanding how scale models can be made to look life like by putting them five times closer to the camera.
Week 2 – Construction & Painting
With our designs finalized, we started work on cutting our materials down to size and assembling the pieces. The materials were cut to size using Nazareth Prep’s wood shop in their fabrication space. In assembly, we used 3D printed 90 degree clamping jigs to ensured that our blessing box was square. These jigs were made in house on a Lulzbot mini 3D printer using ABS filament. Once assembled, Maya took the lead in spray paining the entire blessing box in a galaxy print.
Week 3 – Installation
Once the box was constructed, we installed first the post and then the box once the concrete had set.
Future Work
We do aim to add in some technology our students created within the next month. This technology uploads a picture of the food to twitter after a person closes the door. We ran out of time for the summer camp but will work with the students to get this implemented by end of the Fall semester.
For more information on this project contact me via the contact page or email me at michael@mrrobertsmakes.com
MR ROBERTS MAKES 