Andrei is now working for GOAT to do our IT work, and he has developed this fabulous and creative learning tool, Wheels and Bones. It’s a browser-based game that teaches basic wheelchair maintenance and repair! Wheels and Bones takes place in a fantasy setting, with a ghost and a zombie fixing chairs for their clients. You listen to the client’s report of the problem, inspect the chair’s parts to find out more information, then pick the right tools to fix it, step by step. After you fix several chairs, you unlock the advanced repair cases and the seating clinic.
I love the seating clinic part of the game! You see a side view of the client, and their report of pain or other problems, then you also see their clinician’s specifications for proper measurements. With that info, you use slider controls or push buttons to change dimensions of seat, footrests, and back height, and you also may do things like pump up tires and cushions. As you tweak these dimensions, you see the skeleton view of your client get into a better position.
It is so useful for any wheelchair user to understand the dynamics of their own posture and the chair they use!
And I learned good information from the repair games too! I especially liked how after you finish fixing the chair, and your client zooms happily across the workshop, the real life lessons learned are summed up for you on the screen.
Please try out Wheels and Bones! We’d love any feedback about the game play or how you understand the teaching sequences! This the beta launch, so any feedback you give now can make it into our next version.
Thank you Andrei for this delightful training tool – and very playable game!
I asked Reina to write up what it took to fix up those three manual chairs last week. Reina impressed me a lot by being able to come into the space and self-orient quickly. This is a great skill to have; the ability to poke around and make a sort of mental map of what materials and tools are in a space, so you know where to find everything (or where to start looking!) and what’s available for a project. Reina also would turn to look things up online if it was not easy to figure out. Another super impressive thing was persistence in problem solving, with the materials to hand. That kind of stubborn persistence and resourcefulness is great to see!
As an example here’s an assortment of small wheels and even tinier bolts during the search for the correct parts,
Here’s Reina’s report. You will notice that I named our manual chairs after Disney princesses (and one queen?).
Work on Moana
The main things I did were to re-shape those black plastic things that were the wrong size. I used a white marker to trace its shape from the original part, then used a Dremel to cut to the shape, and then used a hand file to further refine the shape.
I then dug around for correct size bolts, and although couldn’t really find ones with the right thread count, I found ones that were the correct diameter so I just looked for different washers and spacers to fill the extra length.
And finally, we changed the axles from a longer one to a shorter one and added a metal washer to make sure we can stop wiggling on the axle.
Elsa
This one was probably the easiest because I didn’t have to go hunting for different bolts. The tube tape was not on, so at first I tried to duct tape it first and then punch a hole and put it on the rim, but it ended up not holding so instead I just duct taped one broken end directly to the rim, stretched it around, and then duct taped the other end
Although the inner tube seemed a little saggy, it didn’t seem popped or anything, so I just used the one that it came with, and the outer wheels could eventually be replaced since it’s a bit old and doesn’t have as much grip on it. But also, I just used the one that it came with on the rim. so all I had to do was re-insert the inner tube and pop the wheel back on the rim.
Finally, the axle was not fitting, even though it looked like it was the correct one because it was a Tilite. But the wheel axle wasn’t clicking at all, and I measured it, and it was too short. I searched through the axle bin, and chose two longer ones, and then had to tighten the nut to make it slightly shorter. It’s not an ideal fit, but it still works, the quick release button just sticks a little outside of the rim.
Lilo
This was simple in that I didn’t have to find extra hardware, and the axles were a perfect fit already. The only issue was it had very crusty inner tube and wheel. So it was just a matter of finding ones that could replace it and then popping it back in, which was probably the hardest part. And that’s where I got a little cut, but that’s OK. In the process of trying to get it off the first time, I was doing it on the floor, which wasn’t such a good idea because then it scraped the paint off of the rim, so I learned for the next one to do it over cardboard.
Other things:
Both Moana and Elsa still need brake levers. And I guess Elsa could also have the seat wheel guards. But other than that, pretty functional. I had a really fun time fixing those up, I really like the kind of simple mechanisms and putting things together. It reminded me of the mountain bike scooter that I restored this summer. It doesn’t have any motor or electronics, so it was much simpler to disassemble and put back together. But I think the next project trying to get the wheel hub motors to work, or the drive motor, will be interesting. I’d actually wanted to get a scooter, but the person selling it was asking for a lot of money and he bought it broken so the battery needed to be replaced and possibly the motor itself was not working.
I also think it would be fun to even work on adjusting the manual wheelchairs more based off of a person to make it fit like you said how we can change on some of them maybe the back rest angle or the placement of the axle under the seat.
I came in afterwards to inventory each chair by adding it to our nascent online system, BARCAT. We also manually tagged each chair with its name, model, and notes on repair status.
I hope you enjoyed this writeup and maybe you, blog reader, will feel moved to come over to GOAT Space to try your hand at fixing things! We also always need help organizing our supplies. You can check our open hours on the Visit page, and drop in to lend a hand any time!
The day after the BARC Summit, we hosted an Open Source Wheelchair Build Day at GOAT Space. This was a smaller and more freeform event to get together some amazing assistive tech hackers, inventors, and builders to explore what we might be able to do together. We had 20+ people drop in over the day.
Erik Kondo from https://opensourcewheelchairs.org flew out to us (with travel money from OSHWA) actually riding a chair he designed and built from PVC pipe, the Piper. He also shipped us the kids’ version, the Half-Pipe for us to use as an example.
Ralf Hotchiss came and talked to us about his experience creating the Rough Rider and making it internationally available via his organization, Whirlwind Wheelchair International. It was amazing to hear his stories from the 60s, 70s, and 80s and beyond! He also was so helpful in the actual build process for the Piper even though I was a little embarrassed at our not-yet-complete workshop and machine tools!
Erik Kondo and Ralf Hotchkiss
Dana Schwachman from Make Good talked about her designs for TOM and the new, still evolving designs for Make Good’s 3d printed Toddler Mobility Trainer chair. Dana was also a hardworking, expert builder as we worked on the Piper!
Ian, Erik, and Dana deep in conversation
And Corbett O’Toole was there to help teach various skills and talk with everyone about what it is possible to make, invent, and modify. Corbett was doing a lot of work getting people to try things they had not experienced before (like using pipe cutters or other tools).
The day is hard to describe because so many things were happening at once, and I was running around looking for things people needed and doing other “host” things nearly the entire day. Also, during the event, people dropped in and asked for fixes or loaner equipment or dropped things off for us! So we were operating as usual in the middle of our event — wheelchairs don’t stop breaking and people don’t stop needing stuff!
We need better (sharper? electric/bandsaw? ripsaw? everything) stuff to cut with, and need to set up our drill press before we do another build day! A dremel would also be good.
I have more to say about the day, and some nice short video clips to share later, but wanted to do a quick summary of our experience!
We didn’t have time to do any prep or a test build, as this was a very spur of the moment event (only planned one week ahead of time!). Next time, we will be more prepared with our tools and parts and supplies though.
The Piper design currently up on Erik’s site is basically a parts list with a little extra info and pictures. There are also some videos out there. We struggled a little cutting the side guards, and with what order to assemble things in, and caught a few parts errors and omissions. When we do a full documentation of a step by step build we’ll also include the list of tools you will need and a time estimate. It took a fairly chaotic crew of us a solid afternoon to get the Piper cut out, the tubes bent, and the chair assembled, but we didn’t actually drill the holes for the bolts so while it looked good, it was not testable yet! That final step should be coming soon, maybe this week.
What I had not realized is that the Piper model Erik was riding is the first and only one he built. Every time he builds, it is something new to test out a new idea, meeting a different need or using new materials. I think this design is good enough that our “adding new step by step documentation” contribution will be useful to other people who want to try out a build and would like more detailed instructions.
It could also be a great class project, for example, preparing the parts in one class, then doing the assembly in a second class. Or having a skilled team do the cutting and bending, and inviting students or volunteers to assemble several chairs at a build party, like Make Good’s hosted events!
Another goal once we get that step by step info more solid, could be an online tool for measuring a person and resizing the chair to custom fit them. We had two visitors last week who actually built a custom Piper last fall, so we are hoping to learn more working with them!
