Week 17: Details Required

Happy holidays!

The team is still waiting on details from the other small scale teams with regards to build requests and material information. Kevin is still out of town, but the main reason that building would have halted for the moment would be to allow time for the other teams to solidify their requirements. These requirements, such as material to be used and dimensions of parts requested, would guide the build process moving forward in any case. Without solid requirements to work towards, there would be no meaning in working towards creating new parts.

Week 16: Archive Update

Work this week focused on gathering and preparing materials to add them to the main project archive. This included things such as the presentations made throughout the semester, bill of materials for parts and services purchased thus far and to be required later, and Solidworks CAD models of parts made.

As mentioned in previous posts, Kevin will not be in town to work on the build for the majority of the winter break. As a side note, other teams are still working to solidify the details on what they would like the track fabrication team to make next semester. The break provides time for those teams to finalize their plans, and allows the build team (Kevin) to take some time off from working on the project.

There is expected to be ample time next semester to build what is required, as Kevin will have more time available to dedicate to the project as necessary.

Week 15: Winter Break, Finals Week

Regularly scheduled classes have ended and finals have begun. No work has been performed on the bender due to focus on finals and rearranging machines and tools in the garage. Additionally, uncertainties pertaining to requirements from other teams has the potential to greatly affect the work that the team would need to do, so the request for specifics and solid details has been made to the teams that require work from us. The winter break is a good time to allow those teams to solidify their plans and for materials to arrive before construction on the bender resumes. See Kevin's blog post of the week for more specific information.

The tank desk mentioned throughout the past few weeks has been acquired for 0$ from Craigslist, and currently sits underneath a pile of other things, as the garage is being rearranged. It is estimated that the desk has the requisite size, robustness, and weight to allow the bender to be mounted to it and used as-is. The final verdict on this will come at a later time, however.

Week 14: Final Presentation, Next Semester

Work this past week focused on the final report, third writing assignment, and revising the third and final presentation for the semester. A tank desk was acquired as a potential surface for mounting the bender upon, and will look to be tested early next year. For the remainder of this semester and this year, minimal effort will be put towards the build of the bender itself. This is due to the requisite capability required of the team (bending of flat stock to specifications) having been met, and the potential of a change in the material to be used for the track a real possibility. The material tested on thus far has provided promising results, which will lead the way for what will need to be performed next. The current forecast is that any track the team will be required to build can be achieved in a timely manner in the coming semester.

Third presentation: