5/22/2020

Final Post

With the year coming to a close this is my final blog post and I will go over what I have done throughout the year. For the first two quarters of the year we went through Auto-Cad training and then eventually got our certifications at the end of the second quarter. So now I am certified in both Auto-Cad and Solid works. Moving on to the third quarter we went on to group projects which my group picked construction as our field out of several options. We went on to build a crane and most of a bridge but then the virus hit. So during the time of the virus I have individually been working on a tensegrity table which I have yet to finish. Thank you for a good year.

5/15/2020

Hindered Progress

This week I have not been able to get very much work done on my project this has been due to the AP tests that I have been trying to study for. The research that I was able to do this week showed me that while my hook design was good the triangular design would be much easier to 3D print when we eventually return to school at one point. The triangular design looks like this:

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5/6/20

Break from Program: Tensegrity (Continued)

Now that I have designed my tensegrity hooks so that I could make a tensegrity structure I am trying to find out what materials would work best to actually construct it. I found out by watching videos and reading a few articles that you could build on out of just about anything from string to steel cables as long as they can hold the material that the hooks are made out of. While doing my research I found out that some changed need to be made to my hook design so that it will be able to hold up a table. Here is an example of what I want to build. 

5/1/20

Tensegrity

With solid works I built a tensegrity hook that can be used to build a tensegrity table. A tensegrity table is table that looks like it is floating when it is really just being held up by strings that are positioned in a clever way to utilize their tension to hold up a table. I started by drawing the hook then I cut a hole in the top. After cutting the top hole I put a pin in the middle to the strings would have something to tie around.

4/23/20

Solidworks Crafts

With little to do during this coronavirus break from school I have been messing around a little in Solidworks. It is still not full optomized and does not run close to good but I was however able to power through that in order to just mess around with the program a bit. I started of by trying to make a sphere which turns out is harder than you would think it would be. Once I stumbled my way to a sphere I cut a hole in it making almost a tire tread shape. With this I decided to add bike spiokes that ended up popping out the sides a bit which was not intended but a result with this I say the object as a wheel for like a

vechle that is meant for water because it kinda ended up looking like a paddle wheel.

4/17/20

Corona-virus Changes

Due to the events of Corona-Virus school has been cancelled and that means that our projects in this engineering class have also been consequentially canceled. As we are most likely not returning to physical school this year we have begun online classes. For engineering we have been given the choice of programs to work on including Fusion 360 and Solid-works which I have downloaded both. The issue is that neither of the programs run particularly well on my computer I have attempted to do some of the lessons for Fusion 360 but it is just very laggy and the controls feel clunky without a mouse. Regardless of these issues I will have to work to find away to fix them and I will most likely work on mastering Solid-works not Fusion 360. This is because I feel it would be harder to try to learn a new program completely online without the help of someone and I would also like to get a higher level Solid-works certification.

3/10/20

Bridging with wood 

Today we actually started cutting wood but the wood was apparently an expensive commodity. As the rarity of wood is increasing we are using plywood as a result I would have thought balsa wood would be a better option due to the wood already being in the desired shape but it is what it is.