30 Days of Creativity- #1

It was a tweet from Make Magazine that got me interested. This gist was this--do something creative every day for 30 days. Sounds cool. I figured I'd sign up (figuratively speaking, you really don't have to sign up). To learn more about the challenge see the 30 Days of Creativity post at the Make blog.

What to do? Well I have been into providing manipulative brain teaser puzzles for the kids in my math classes, so I though it would be good to add to my puzzle collection. After searching around for some ideas I came upon the famous (in some circles at least) Soma Cube. Looks easy enough.

Figure 1. A cheap plastic sponge mop refill

The Soma Cube Project

My first idea was to look for some dice to glue together. Couldn't find any. How about foam? Maybe a sponge cut into cubes? Seemed like a good idea. No sponges either. The wife recommended I zip over to the local Big Lots and pick up some cheap sponges. Good idea! So I did. I came back with a sponge mop refill that seemed to have the desired mechanical stiffness to be able to hold its shape (Figure 1).

There are plenty of sites where on can see how to make a Soma Cube. One that works is at Minds in Bloom. That's where I saw how to make the seven shapes. The plan was to cut the foam into cubes, glue them together with super glue and maybe paint them.

Figure 2. Peeling off the plastic mounting fixture

An initial cut on a table saw to remove the scrub bar from the edge of the sponge worked well. So, buoyed with hope, I carefully (sort of) removed the plastic mounting fixture from the sponge (Figure 2). I figured that would be the side I'd glue on so some damage was tolerable. Then reality set in.

Additional trial cuts on the saw were a failure. The first cut worked because the scrub bar added sufficient mechanical strength to allow the cut to proceed without snagging the sponge and bunching it up in the saw blade.

Figure 3. That is one unsuccessful sponge cut

After that, smooth accurate cuts proved impossible (or at least very unlikely--see Figure 3). I have always wanted to build a foam cutter, and that is what it would take to cut a foam plastic sponge into cubes. No time for that now though.

A last ditch effort to save Day 1 found me attempting to to use some wood on hand to cut cubes about 9/16 of an inch on a side. Fail! You can't really make accurate cubes (not quickly at least) that small on  a table saw. A chop saw might work, but I don't have a chop saw.

So much for Day 1. I think I know where I can get some ready-made cubes for a retry on Day 2.

Next Day