Week 1: Starting to Machine

     Today we worked in the ME 250 classroom and also in the ME 250 machine shop. Our goals for the day was to build our double gearbox, check all our measurements, and start machining our most critical module (MCM), which is the arm of our robot. We decided to work on the double gearbox and measurements in the ME 250 classroom right after Lecture and other tasks needed to be completed. From 4:00- 6:00 p.m. we are planning on going to the machine shop and work on the mill, drill press, and band saw. We hope to finish our most critical module by the end of the day next Thursday (3/22). Besides from these tasks we also traded some of our materials in, because we needed more sheets of aluminum for our robot. We now have all the materials we need besides a part we have to order. We traded in our Acrylic plate and Delrin plate in order to get 2 more Aluminum plates, 1/16'' thick. We also were able to get a L shaped corner piece, which we will attach to our arm to knock balls off the perches of the tower.

Acrylic and Delrin Plates

Aluminum plates and L shaped
aluminum corner piece

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In the ME 250 classroom we built our double gearbox and also
checked the ball tower measurements. Some of the struggles
we faced when building the double gearbox was that it seemed
one of the holes was stripped of its threads so we were unable
to get the screw to fasten into the hole. Therefore, we had to get
a replacement part from another double gearbox kit, so we could assemble all the pieces and make sure they were tightly fixed together. We also checked our measurements to make sure our MCM was the right dimensions, because we wanted to start machining later today and we didn't want to make any mistakes especially when we are just starting the project.

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      In the machine shop we plan to work on our most critical module (MCM) of our robot. Our MCM for our robot is the arm, which will be used to knock balls off the perches of the tower. How the arm will work is that we will use the L shaped brackets to knock balls off the perches which will then roll down the ramp and land in the bed of the robot. We also have ramps on the base of our robot to ensure the balls make it to the bed of the robot. We have changed our MCM concept from before by making it spring loaded with a pin. How this concept will work is that we want to have the upper bar slide into the lower bar and will be compressing a spring. There will then be a pin placed through the lower and upper bar holding the upper arm down keeping the spring compressed. Our planetary gearbox motor will pull out the pin, which will release the spring and raise the upper arm. When the arm has been raised to the proper place a second pin will stop the arm and lock the arm into place.
    What parts we decided to machine today were the lower and upper bars of the arm and the L shaped brackets. The machines we have to use to manufacture these parts are the mill, band saw, and drill press. Some special features we have to make on these parts are a slot for the pin to slide into and a second hole for the second pin to stop the upper arm from moving. We will also have to ream the hole for the pin to go into in order to make it more accurate and a nice finish. This will be our first time working in the machine shop on our project, so we are expecting to be having some difficulties, but we hope to learn from our mistakes so we can become more efficient.