On Fri, Jul 27, 2007 at 12:45:35PM -0700, David Artman wrote: > I'm thinking about foam again... maybe you could cut strips of foam thick > enough that, when jammed into the ends of the PVC pipe, it won't slip out > but still provides variable angle flexibility. I'm nervous about this one. The foam is going to be under a lot of stress and will probably tear across the fold line relatively quickly. > bends to conform to the given angle) and you should be set. Your PVC pipe > will provide static tension, to hold the pyramidal shape, even though the > actual joins are flexible to the point of being floppy. Don't forget that thin PVC piping is, itself, flexible. Once you get to a few feet, you're going to have wobble in the edges as well as wiggle in the vertices to deal with. Hmmm...foam inserts like you're talking about aren't terribly resistant to being pulled out. This design sounds like it's going to quickly collapse flat with two opposite base-points meeting. The cloth sheath itself might help, but I don't know that it would provide enough tension to keep it pyramidal. Hmmmm...how about those mesh-and-spring steel type constructions. Instead of PVC, use steel which wants to spring open into a straight line circling the base. They've managed to put a square-ish base on my laundry hamper, so in theory it should be possible to come up with something really light-weight and relatively pyramidal...easy to collapse flat for storage, but wanting to stay in a pyramid shape when you're playing (except when you fall on them). I have no idea about cost... Marc
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