5/17/17

This will be my last blog post.

We've finished our entire project on time, not including the column stub by Vander-Bend which will hopefully be finished by Maker Faire this weekend. Our presentation is complete, which went well. Now we only have to finish our final report. My sections for the report are Abstract, Acknowledgments, Introduction, Description of Sub-Team and Objectives, and Conclusion and Suggestions for Future Work. We expect to have the report completed by Thursday night. Then we have Maker Faire over the weekend which should go smoothly.

I'm excited to be done with this project. It's sometimes difficult to work in a group due to conflicting opinions and schedules. I felt that our project wasn't exactly within the realm of what I hoped to do with my senior project, but nevertheless we gained valuable experience. I hope some good came out of the project for future years' work, but that'll ultimately be up to the digression of our professors. Ultimately, I'm glad it's over, and I'm looking forward to graduation.

5/10/17

This week, we will conclude the work done on our architectural model. All that's left is attaching the flanges and wooden base to our wooden model as footings.

For our work for this week, we are focusing mainly on the presentation which we deliver on Friday, 5/12. Additionally, I worked on my individual evaluations for my team. There isn't too much left to do before Maker Faire happens.

5/3/17

I wasn't able to get much progress done on the wooden architectural model because it's almost complete. All that's left is to acquire footings and to attach the guideway black braces to the guideway section. Plus, Kevin didn't show up to class, so I wasn't able to communicate anything to him.

Kathlyn took the wooden model with her when she went to a hardware store to look for PVC flanges. An example is shown in the picture below. These are what we're thinking we'll use for the footings: the base of the column will sit in it while it's drilled to a wooden block found in the Superway Shop. However, since she took the column, I wasn't able to attach the guideway braces. I've found screws to use, but I still need a drill with which to drill them in.

4/26/17

The design for the wooden Cat's Eye is almost complete. Following last week, Kevin and I searched the Superway shop to find seven screws and nuts to bolt the clamps onto the structure. Once those were found, I painted the whole thing white to be more visually-appealing. The painting took a while so that the layers could dry properly. We also got a few more pieces 3D printed by Professor Youssefi as well, to simulate the guideway rails. Next class period, we will discuss footings and figure out which screws to use to bolt the guideway to the structure.

4/19/17

This week, Kevin and I have progressed a lot on the wooden Cat's Eye design for the architectural model. On Friday, April 14th, I picked up the 3D-printed clamps from Professor Youssefi. They turned out exactly as intended, though Youssefi did recommend that we create fillets on the edges so that the printer wouldn't make the edges so sharp.

After obtaining the clamps, we realized that our wooden model was a bit too thick and had to be filed down so we could fit the clamps on. On Tuesday, April 18, Kevin went to the ME machine shop to use their files to work on the design. Finally, we attached the clamps as pictured.

Our next steps for this are to finalize the design for Maker Faire. This means we will use class time together to brainstorm ideas for the footings, or some way to make it stand up. We will also discuss what to use as a guideway, since that isn't exactly in our specifications, but it is an important part. If we have extra time, we will see what kind of solar panels could fit on top. After class, I will work on painting the model so it looks more cohesive.

4/12/17

On Friday, April 7, I went with Kevin to the ME computer lab so we could continue our work on the wooden design for the architectural model. In the lab, since he doesn't know how to use SolidWorks, I had him measure out all the dimensions while I input them into SolidWorks to make a rough design of the existing model. Then, we brainstormed ideas for clamp designs to hold the wooden structure section to the interlocking column. As a reminder, due to the properties of the steel within the interlocking column, we are unable to weld or bolt to it. Therefore, we will use clamps, which we can bolt to itself.

This is what our first iteration of the model looks like. The wooden sections already exist, we just need to fabricate the clamps. We plan on having Professor Youssefi 3D print them. I emailed him on Friday, and now that it's the following Wednesday, I've sent him a reminder email. The clamps for the center and top are shown below. The center clamp picture is shown from the outside (visible to public), the top clamp picture is shown from the inside (invisible to public). There will be two of each clamp piece so that two will attach to each other.

4/5/17

Because I went out of town for Spring Break, I didn't accomplish too much in terms of project progress. Before break, I worked on the wooden model with Kevin, then painted the black box section. (this process is more detailed in last week's blog post). We need to make a few modifications to the design including cutting out a slot for the interlocking column to fit through. Claude's father has already fabricated this so Claude will give it to me in a couple days. Then we need to design some kind of clamps to showcase styles of attachment for such a shape as the cat's eye. Because the main part of the design is created without interlocking column, we will be able to weld and bolt to the design as much as we want.

This week, we worked on our Presentation 2 which will be presented on Wednesday, April 5. It will be graded on the following sections:

Project Summary/Context, Current Status of Design, Detailed schedule for the semester, Budget, and Engineering/Professional Improvements. The parts I'm working on are Project Summary/Context and Detailed schedule. For the Summary, it's essentially another recap of Spartan Superway's outline and goals that we reiterate during every presentation, as well as our subteam's importance to its goals. Our schedule will outline everything we need to do in the next two months to finish successfully, well before Maker Faire.