Foosball Stick Project - Adam and Oliver B.

Adam E. Oliver B. 

5/30/2019

Foosball stick Project

We have always liked playing Foosball at recess and lunch; unfortunately one of the Foosball Tables’ defenders broke. This was upsetting because it made the game very unbalanced and one sided, ruining a lot of the fun. We decided to take on this project because it resonates to us. So we decided to fix the table by making a new defender stick. We knew we would mess up along the way but we didn’t care because no matter how much worse the new defenders were then the old ones they would still better than nothing.

We didn’t need to design the stick itself very much but we needed to decide and design what we could do with the constraints that we have, these being 5 hours and $25. We decided that the best materials we could use were 2 pieces of 2 by 4, a steel rod for $8(this was the only piece that wasn’t already supplied), and a steel pipe. We also had to think about how we would get the stick in to the table, we couldn’t do anything too big because then we wouldn’t be able to slide it into the table. With these in mind we ended up making it nearly identical to the other sticks. Our stick didn’t have the springs on the ends like the others and ours wasn’t as balanced but ours worked fine.

One challenge we faced over the course of the project was the rubber handle that Adam brought from home was about ¼ inch to thin. We didn’t know how to fix it and the best alternative would be duct tape which wouldn’t be nearly as fun. We ended up trying to drill into it and sand it down until we finally found a tool that was meant to be used for this type of problem, unfortunately it was too small but we used it anyways. It was a sort of sharp bladed metal rasp and we ended up widening the opening with and hammering in the rod the rest of the way to make sure it didn’t come off from lack of friction.



In the process of making the stick we learned how to overcome challenges, learned that things don’t have to be perfect to be functional, and learned that working in a partnership helps you get work done faster. We liked the challenges and triumphs that come with bigger projects like these. If we had more time we probably would re glue the characters (we messed up once) to hold them better then just taping them. And we would most likely figure out a better way to glue the stick into the table. I would say if your looking to have some fun while doing the project do what we did, design your own stick and make it from scratch, but if you're looking for optimal functionality you should probably get a manufactured replacement.

Foosball defender stick in place