First Cranky Contraption:

One biggest success is the wood on the bottom that holds the two wood base. The wood base couldn’t stand on its own without the wood on the bottom, but now it is strong. Also, I think my other success is the people on the swing. I thought the legs and hands will come off because it was too weak, it was actually successful when I was done.

Skills that I learned and developed is curving thick wires. I didn’t know I could use the vice to curve the wires. I only used the vice to cut out and make a hole on the wood at the beginning, but I started to use the vice to curve wires.

If I did this again, one thing I would do differently is making the wire to go around more smoothly. Now the wire is turning, making the sound of scratching the wood. If I can do this again, I would try to make it go smoothly by drilling a bigger hole on the wood that fits the wire.

Second Cranky Contraption:

My biggest obstacle was that the symbols touched each other and couldn’t move them.  So, I curved the wires of the wind and sun, so the two of them move to the other direction, and the other ones move up and down.

One thing I’d like to change is the wire. The wire is too weak, so it was easy to curve or move, but the wire is not straight. If I can change one thing I want to change to wire to thicker wire or make it straight to make it look better.

One concern shared with me was about the hole on the foam. If I play with it a lot, the wire will keep moving and make the hole on the foam bigger. I didn’t think about it, so it was really helpful to me.

Overall, I think this product is unsuccessful for me. The purpose of cranky contraption is to make people enjoy it by turning the handle and see how it moves. But, my cranky contraption doesn’t really move very well, so I think it is not successful enough for me.