Week 21 Progress (2017-3-22)

Since last week, Claude has made more progress on his architectural model designs. Below is what the simpest T-shape form will look like. The rounded grey sections are clamps, which will 3D printed. and the white portions are PVC pipe covers (which will also go over all of the brown crossbeams). Currently, we expect to use Erector parts for the brackets and for I beam connectors, though we may instead use laser cut acrylic.

On Thursday, Winter and Kevin went to the ME shop in the engineering building to try to create one of the architectural models, the "cat's eye" design, with the equipment provided there. The picture is below.

We used the bandsaw on some scrap wood in the Superway Shop to fashion this design. We attempted to sand the inside but this proved to be too difficult with limited tools. The "black box" squares are indications of where the Superway guideway would fit in, which is not part of our scope for this project. We are still waiting on Claude's father to work on the "interlocking column" prototypes, which we thought would be done by now but Claude and his father are still debating on dimensions.

We have also STILL not received any emails from Andries. We have been waiting on this since week #2. Fortunately though, Dr. Youssefi did succeed in making a pair of clamps with the 3D printer very quickly after contacting him.

Week 20 Progress (2017-3-15)

To reiterate something previously occurring, two of our group members, Kathlyn and Claude, participated in a Skype group call with Ron Swenson and Andries Louw. The purpose of this call was to share our designs thus far and to gain insight on any aspects we may have missed. Andries also showed us a new support structure design, though since this is such late notice, we may not take it into account in great extent.

We have the general dimensions for the architectural model we will be creating. This picture below is the wooden beam inside of a PVC pipe to mimic the aesthetic skin.

This picture is the basis of how we will make our design more pleasing to the eye. As of now, Claude is still working on the clamp design so we can't progress until he makes up his mind on some things. He's almost done with his design for the basic T-shape model, which we will later cover with a curved skin. After we work out how the clamps will look, he will begin to work on the designs for his cat's-eye concept. Then we can work on 3D printing everything and putting things together.

For now, Claude has this design, which we can't use because the size would make it too difficult and too elaborate in real-life application. He thought we would just make a giant T-shaped clamp. This will be refined by next week.

Week 19 Progress (2017-3-8)

Here is the link to our Presentation 1:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17jWUimgnZD5Ax67Z1MixaxjqK4BDnnuSh3bH8uC3pDk/edit?usp=sharing

We had a good presentation, including what we've been working on all semester, our deliverables, schedule, and difficulties in completion. Our difficulties still remain:

1. We are waiting on Andries' blueprint to construct our column stub from Vander-Bend
2. We haven't finished clamp designs, so we can't get those 3D printed yet
3. We can't machine our wooden columns until Claude decides what dimensions he wants

Ultimately, there were hardly any questions on our presentation, so we think we were successful on that.