Lego car

I was able to complete the lego man successfully and have gone on to start working on the lego car.  I have become good at mating and it is time to move on to the next step.  Mr. Martin taught me the basics on making drawings on Solidworks and now I must practice making drawings for parts.  Mr. Martin and I also decided that I should split my time between Solidworks and my senior project.  Learning solidworks is fine, but I need to move ahead on my project since I have not made much progress so far.

Assembling the lego car

Instructions for assembling the lego car.

Lego man

This week I will be practing my mating skills on Solidworks.  I will be trying the part assembly for the lego man.  The hardest part for the lego man is the hat and the hips.  Hopefully, I will be able to complete more part assemblies and apply those to my senior project.

The most difficult mate: the hat to the head

Mating the arm to the torso with only one degree of motion

Senior Project Design Pt.2

This week I was able to complete Unit 5 of the Solidworks certification.  I learned how to assemble parts together and I was able to apply that to the parts I had made for the solar still.  They were easily mated and fit perfectly into each other.  I also added an exploded view so that the inside of the still is visible as well as to show how the pieces fit together.

Next week I plan on completing Unit 6, and then trying out the example projects to sharpen my skills.  Afterword, I will be ready for certification and I will move forward with my project.

Learning the exploded view tool

Assembling solar still parts

Senior Project Design

This week I am almost done with the Solidworks certification program.  I only have unit 5 and unit 6 left to complete.  Since I am almost done I have started to sketch prototypes of the parts I need for the solar still for my senior project.  Right now it is pretty basic, but it could get the job done.  Once I am certified in Solidworks I might try out different designs for the solar still.
For now, I will continue with unit 5 while also designing the parts for my project.

Using revolved feature tool to create bottom of the still

The top of the solar still

Halfway done Solidworks

This week I have completed the tutorials for lesson 3 of basic part design and have successfully completed two of the four projects.  I hope to completely finish all the tutorials by the end of next week.  Section four is a short section so I am going to go through those videos over the weekend and do the projects on Monday.  I also want to start creating some designs for my solar still, and will bring them in Monday to start working on.

Partway completed project

Successfully created bracket

Return of SK2

 We have recently worked a lot on SK2 since progress was slow in the past, the battery mount is almost complete and only requires 8 more holes for the brackets (middle picture) to stop the battery from sliding.
The one rear wheel has been completed as we have fixed the fitting of the tubeless wheel and have finally found a master link for the chain.

In the next week we will complete the battery mount and also attach and mount the front tie bars and wheels.

Brackets for the battery mount

Back wheel

Learning to sketch

This week I was able to finish Unit 2 of the Solidworks tutorials.  I am now able to sketch and hopefully I will be able to make parts by the end of next week.  Jack has also been working hard on SK2 and is trying to get it rolling.

Back wheel of SK2 is now attached.

Adding sketch dimensions

Senior Project Time

It is time to start my senior project.  I have decided that I am going to create a solar still and to design it, I will be using the Solidworks computer program.  I must first learn how to use solidworks which I will be learning for the next few weeks.
The basic outline of my project is to create freshwater out of ocean water using the still, and then using it to grow plants and comparing the water's effectiveness compared to regular tap water.
Everyone else will continue to work on the go-kart, SK2, and learning how to weld.

Peter working on parts for the go-kart brakes

Learning to make a basic sketch