thanksgiving week update!

MCM has been successfully put together:



CADs for the rest of the modules are complete and have been assessed by our GSI.



We will be machining all remaining parts this coming week.
Monday: Complete adjustments and test run the MCM
Tuesday: Mill 12-2pm (work on small car)
Wednesday: Lathe 10-12pm (axles for small car)
Thursday Mill 12-2pm (work on arm; use laser cutter too)
Weekend: meetings to put machined parts together!

additional tidbit for nov 15th!

We have also changed the design of the "claws" used to push balls around by our MCM. The previous design had too small a choice of holes, and the laser-cutter cut the pieces out from too close to the edge of the plate of material resulting in an inexact geometry for two of the claws.

The new claw has two tapered holes of radius 1/8th an inch. We have also made the section where the claw is connected to the plate perpendicular to the edge of the plate, and the positions of the holes are far enough in to give additional security.

Week of November 15th

This past week we were machining our components for our car. We are currently finished with the base plate, front claws, and wheel shafts. We just need to arbor press our wheels and assemble the car and then we should be finished with our first module. We are presenting our components to our GSI today and then assembling the car parts before Wednesday so we are ready for the design review.

The motor has been assembled so hopefully after combining all the components, the car will run efficiently. We are confident this will happen.

Week 2 and 3

Sorry ME250 bloggers for our late update of week 2. Last week primarily consisted of assembling our DC planetary gearbox motor for the homework #4 assignment. During the weekend we assembled and discussed ideas for our final arm design that will swing in the slot and drop a wedge into the lever to block our opponents from moving their lever. We are currently finishing up our CAD designs for the arm and pictures will be uploaded at the end of the week for our next blog.

This week we have been machining our components for our larger car that is featured in the previous post. Our components that we have been machining are the aluminum base plate, bushing mounts and the wheel shafts. For the bushing mounts we cut the aluminum 90 degree angle stock into separate pieces that are approximately 1.25" by 1.25" and then used the mill to make the dimensions more precise. We used the water jet to cut our aluminum base plates with designated holes. We are now finishing the shafts and using the laser cutter to cut our acrylic arms. The car will be assembled for our design review on this upcoming Wednesday.

We will have pictures and more to come soon.

Update: Week of Nov 1st

1. Completion of MS6: Larger car is ready to be machined!



The car we designed contains an aluminum plate as its base, two acrylic metal arms to gather balls on the table, 6- speed gearbox tamiya motor, and 4 polypropylene wbeels. The 6-speed gearbox designates the car to move forwards/backwards or turn left and right The two acrylic arms are stationary and held in place. The wheels are attached to the car by bushing mounts and bushings. The aluminum plate is 8 inches by 6 inches by 0.25 inches thick.

The engineering drawings are done and have been reviewed by our GSI, we made the necessary adjustments/improvements and we'll be heading down to the machine shop this coming week.

2. Design: A slider-crank system for smaller car

The idea of a slider-crank system surfaced last week. It will allow the claws on the smaller car to rotate, moving laterally in an "open, close" motion. This feature will help us grab balls off the edge of the table. We have worked on the CAD for the greater part of this system.