Utah teapot Conference Main
Fact Sheet SIGGRAPH 98

Assembly Instructions

The teapot contains four major parts: the body, the handle, the spout, and the cap. Similarly, the planar layout consists of four assemblies marked B(i) for body parts, H(i) for handle parts, S(i) for spout parts and C(i) for cap parts (where i is the running index of the part). Before starting to cut anything, hold the sheet of paper up to a strong light and use a pencil to mark the parts' names on the back side of the paper so you will recognize the pieces and their order of assembly after you cut them out.

Stubs (marked in green) are provided for all pieces. These stubs are just a strong recommendation. While the accuracy of the real parts, as marked in red, must be as precise as possible, the stubs are only there to help you glue the pieces together. Each stub looks like this: 

                              ____________________
                             |____________________|
			     |____________________|
But you should cut a stub only along its outside green lines. the middle green line is there only as a separation marker. The stub connects the two neighboring pieces along this separation marker: 
                                 Piece       Piece
                                   Ci        C(i+1)
                                   |           |
                                   |           |
                                   V           V

                             ----------- --------------
                                     -------

                                        ^
                                        |
                                        |
                                        |
                                      Stub
You might also want to use a pencil to mark, on the back side of the pieces, the boundaries that should be glued to the stubs for each piece.

The body and the cap are fairly large, so cross sections (in magenta) are provided for support. Three cross sections are provided for the body (middle, top, and bottom) and one for the base of the cap. Using these cross sections as support is again, only a recommendation. You will probably want to include the middle large cross section of the body. These cross sections are glued to a very thick carton paper and cut together. The small circles on the cross sections are used to mark the zipping point of the assembled part. (Now, these cross sections are circular, so this does not really create an issue, does it? :-)

Remember that tweaking is OK and trimming the pieces to make them fit better is part of the game! This is not to say, though, that the pieces are designed with deficiencies for you to detect and fix. :-( We recommend starting with the body, then assembling the spout, the handle, and finally the cap. Follow the instructions (for the low resolution layout, only the indices of the pieces are somewhat different) in order:

The Body

  • Cut and glue the stubs of B2, B3, B4, and B5 in this order. Remember to mark the names of the pieces as well as the locations of the stubs with a soft pencil on the back.
  • Form rings out of B2, B3, B4, B5 by gluing the short, side, stub.
  • Glue B1Cross, B3Cross, and B5Cross on very thick carton paper, cut the disks, and make a large, one-inch hole at the center of B3Cross.
  • Glue B2 to B3 along the stub on B2.
  • Glue B4 to B2/B3 along the stub on B3.
  • Glue B3cross at the widest location of B3 to the B2/B3/B4 piece. The disk is wider than the circular openings of B2 and B4, so press B2/B3/B4 to form an ovalic shape and then slide B3Cross in.
  • Glue B5 to B2/B3/B4 along the stub on B4.
  • Cut B1 and glue it with the colored size inside.
  • Glue B1 to B2/B3/B4/B5 directly with no stub to B1.
  • Glue B1Cross at the top of B1/B2/B3/B4/B5 along the open edge of B1. This cross section covers the top opening of the Body.
  • Optionally, you can do the same for the bottom of the Body, using B5Cross.

The Spout

  • Cut and glue the stubs of S1, S2, S3, and S4 in this order. Remember to mark the names of the pieces as well as the locations of the stubs with a soft pencil on the back.
  • Form rings out of S1, S2, S3, S4 by gluing the short side stub.
  • The spout has no cross-sections supports, as it is quiet small and round.
  • Glue S1 to S2 along the stub of S1. Remember throughout that the spout does not have a circular cross section. Shape the glued rings to nicely connect S1 to S2. Here, the cross section is closer to a rounded triangle.
  • Glue S3 to S1/S2 along the stub of S2.
  • Glue S4 to S1/S2/S3 along the stub on S3.
  • Cut S5 and glue it into a ring using the provided stub.
  • Cut S6 and glue it into a ring using the provided stub with the colored side inside.
  • Glue S5 to S1/S2/S3/S4 along the stub of S4.
  • Glue S6 to S1/S2/S3/S4/S5 directly with no stub to S5.
  • Glue the spout to the the large white circular drawing on the body. The seam line of the body should match the seam line of the spout.

The Handle

  • Cut and glue the stubs of H4, H3, H2, and H1 in this order. Remember to mark the names of the pieces as well as the locations of the stubs with a soft pencil on the back.
  • Form rings out of H4, H3, H2, H1 by gluing the short side stub.
  • The handle has no cross-section supports, as it is quite small and round.
  • Glue H4 to H3 along the stub of H4. Remember throughout that the handle does not have a circular cross section. Shape the glued rings to nicely connect H4 to H3. Here, the cross section is elliptic.
  • Glue H2 to H4/H3 along the stub of H3.
  • Glue H1 to H4/H3/H2 along the stub on H2.
  • After the glue is dry, gently bend the arc formed by the handle to a smaller radius, by pressing on the two ends of the handle and by making the cross sections more ovalic. Fit the distance between the two ends of the handle to the distance between the two white small circular drawings on the body.
  • Glue the handle to the two small circular markers on the body, with H4 at the top and H1 at the bottom of the teapot.

The Cap

  • Cut and glue the stubs of C4, C3, C2, and C1 in this order. Remember to mark the names of the pieces as well as the locations of the stubs with a soft pencil on the back. Note: the stubs of C1 and C4 are also near the pieces as they cannot fit in their small gaps. Do not cut the circular stub C4. Leave it connected to C4 as is.
  • Form cones/rings out of C4, C3, C2, C1 by gluing the short, side, stub.
  • Glue C4 to C3 on the stub of C4.
  • Glue C2 to C4/C3 along the stub of H3.
  • Glue C1 to C4/C3/C2 directly with no stub.
  • Optionally, glue the cross section C4Cross to C4 at its opening to close the cap and give it some more strength.
  • As in the original teapot, the cap is smaller than the opening in the body. Place the cap on the cross section of the body, C1Cross. You can, obviously glue the cap to the body, if you want.

Happy Assembly!!!

By
Gershon Elber
Department of Computer Science
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa, 32000 Israel
+972.4.829.4338
+972.4.829.4353 fax
gershon@cs.technion.ac.il

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