Weekly Update: Updated Schedule and To-Do List

This past week was the lead up to Thanksgiving Break and the due date of the demonstration of our most critical module (Shaft Module) and the completed engineering of the rest of our machine. Due to the number of parts alone in our most critical module, and other modules, the pat 5 days were spent mostly manufacturing parts and assembling the most critical module. Our group often had to meet late nights in the Wilson center to assemble and manufacture the machine. Our most critical module and cart module both requre a significant amount of welding, which only one person on our team is able to do properly. Therefor, the Wilson Center was the ideal place to meet for our team.

Figure 1: Nathan Welding Cart

One problem we ran into, while manufacturing was that the polyethylene bushings did not work well once they were press fit into the pieces. They often got pushed out and did not provide a great low friction surface for our shafts to turn on. We decided to invest in brass rod from ALRO and turn that for some of our bushings. It seemed to allow our aluminum and steel rod to turn much more easily.

Figure 2: Checking Fitments On Cart Module

Now that our most critical module is complete, as well as our rear defensive module (shown in previous post), we can concentrate on constructing the cart module and wall module, assembling and testing our machine. In the next week we will be spending all of our time completeing these tasks to have our machine operational by the seventh of December.

The schedule that was created in the first post has been updated from November 30 until the end of the semester. The schedule includes dates to have team milestones completed, meeting times, and machine shop times. Sticking to this schedule should likely allow us to complete our machine on time and be competetive in the competition. Below is the link to our teams updated schedule:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tGPqXjzlZHqSdRDEU3oI4jw&hl=en#