Sunday, April 21, 2013

Early Morning Waxing and Waning Photography

By "Early Morning" I mean 0300 to 0600. Eric, a really awesome programmer on my hall, and I didn't feel like sleeping. Instead, we started carving the large pieces of wax another one of our hall members crufted from Reuse awhile back. Eric had a nice camera and some color filters of various shades. We played around with them and actually got some really interesting pictures. Here is a slideshow of our doodles.


Some of these photos would make a great desktop background!

First All-Nighter at MITERS: Casting the Urethane Wheel



I've been procrastinating the molding of the orbit wheel in favor of machining for too long now. I need at least 24 hours for the mold to set. Starting three days before TechFair.

Tightly Packed Electronics and Machined Housing



After my motors, motor controllers, and HobbyKing radio transmitter and reciever came in the mail from a long and expressed journey, I could start on the electronics. I decided not to cram it all inside with the ring gear, because I may potentially get sprinkling aluminum flakes as the bearings etch away the water jetted surface. This change of plans required more machined aluminum, which I could do on the MITERS mill.  

Cruft Shelf

I found a really nice piece of plywood on hall, and my closet was overflowing with closet stuff and cruft. So I decided to make shelf exclusively for crufty things. Also, since I have a loft, I have a bunch of places to attach things. Therefore, I can make the most efficient use of the space in my small room (it is actually the smallest room on hall and the only "double"). 


Click to read about the very short build:

3D Printed Urethane Mold and Ring Gear


The ring gear was the main reason I decided to make my own wheel. I couldn't find any wheels without hubs that also had a ring gear inside. So I designed a wheel rim with a bunch of water jetted aluminum rings (one being the ring gear). The ring gear was the most stubborn of the bunch. It really tested my dedication to this project. There were a few times that I ran out of ideas on how to make it. But I persisted. I was probably doing it completely wrong, but I came up with a solution that worked using Autodesk's gear generator.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Changing a "Rusty 'Ole" East Campus Faucet


The sink had a terrible drain ever since my roommate was assigned the room (partly the reason we chose the other single to move into and build a double loft). It also didn't look very aesthetically pleasing, especially for something that spits out "clean" water. These unpleasant traits weren't enough for me to fix the sink before, because we turned the room into a guest room (used primarily for sleeping). However, when I knew my Mom was going to use the guest room during Spring Break, I had more of an incentive to fix it.

STATUS:
Faucet leaks around the side when running
Sink basin is full of dirt and gunk
Does not drain properly (water sits in the sink for hours)
Not usable