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.

3/6/20

Thinking about wood

Today we are thinking about the wood we are going to use to build and construct our potentially beautiful bridge. The design that we are going to use is still not the best but at some point we have to move on to bigger things so we are now thinking about wood.

3/2/20

The Bridge in Process

Working on the bridge has not yet commenced due to the lack of materials and proper bridge design. The bridge will probably be built out of wood when we do start building it preferably stronger wood than that of the crane we thought about metal but that seems to far away of an idea right now.

2/27/20

Redesigning the Bridge

Due to the limitations of the materials that we can use for our bridge we have decided to redesign the bridge we want to build using the west point program. The new bridge will hopefully work for its intended use and will do it more effectively by using more triangular support.

2/25/20

Beginning the Bridge

Today we are officially done with the crane project and have begun our venture on to new horizons which is a crane. The bridge project is going to start off with us designing our bridge that we will eventually build on a FREE bridge simulation. So that is what we did and here are some of the pictures of our design.

2/21/20

Lifting more power

After locking in our rope we went for more lifting power and control.In order to achieve this we must get a better motor and away to more efficiently control the power to it we debated using a switch and or adding a limited to the cranes motor.

2/19/20

Adding support to keep rope in

As we were running tests on picking up stuff with our crane we found that the rope kept jumping out of the pin wheel. So in order to keep the rope inside of the wheel we attached wooden supports above them to lock the ropes in.

2/12/20

Further Work On the Crane

With our success in lifting the battery last class using the crane we now sought to lift something heavier but first we needed to add more support. Next class we hope to lift the heavy object and that our crane does not snap.

2/10/20

Progress

Today we were able to install the first pulley wheels and got the motor installed. It took awhile but we also found a battery that works with the motor.

1/29/20

Putting more supports

Today I went back to working on the crane set and add more supports to the crane. I also plotted it the design in my head having the top piece being longer to add more stability due to the motor being connected to it.

1/27/20

Learning to Fly

Today we took a little hiatus from the wooden crane project. We learnt how to fly RC planes using a flight simulator for some reason. It was a bit challenging at first but it is not that hard to get the hang of. We also taught the other groups how to fly using the simulator.

1/23/20

Starting the Crane

Today we started to build the crane kit. The crane kit is a set of balsa wood we have not progressed much so far but we plan to have the full crane built eventually. Right now we only have the bad in the form of a triangular prism and we are going to add supports.

1/21/2020

Creating the Blog

Today we created the blogs. We have not done anything yet as we are waiting on materials and the stuff to be set up. When the materials come in I will most likely be doing a building a construction project.