The Home Stretch

T-minus 8 days! All of the manufacturing is due next Tuesday, which means that we have 6 days of manufacturing time left! We will have to be efficient with the time that we do have, but we should be able to finish with a comfortable window of time left. We need to focus on milling a few parts for the top bot, and need to mill all of the parts for the wedge launcher, and then the final assembly begins.

Currently, we need to fasten all of the fixtures to the top bot body: the casters, the pillow blocks and the motors all need to bolt to the bottom. We also will need to fix the inner walls to collect the balls, and the arm which sweeps them into the body.

In addition to this, we were unfortunately the victims of a late-shipped order of screws from McMaster-Carr, which means we have to devote about an hour of this week to assembling our slot module, which should have been done last week. However, this does not require shop time and can likely be done in lab section.

Construction of the wedge launcher will begin this week, and requires us to mill four parts and lathe two axles. Luckily, if things run smoothly, this should not take up more than four hours of our shop time.

Lastly, the electrical wiring and tether for the top bot will need to be constructed. This is a unique design, something that we will have to think twice about before implicating, but will not take place until the end of the week.

We begin our busy week with 8 days left!

-Team MA

Pre-Thanksgiving Crunch Update

Due to rounds of exams for all members of Team MA, there was a lull of sorts in production over the last week. However, we now have several exams under our belts and are ready to be back in action in the shop this week. Having destroyed Ohio State in Columbus yesterday, we are fired up and ready to finish up the fabrication for the MCM, which according to the original schedule is due Wednesday. We will be taking today to prepare for what needs to be done so that our slot module is in working order by the due date. It comes down to us milling a couple more parts, turning the axles, and fitting everything together. This shouldn't be a problem for us to complete on time.

Once the slot module is done, there are a few things to be done for the top module and wedge module, but they are relatively simple. Soon we will be able to test on all our modules and will have a few days to change them, if needed.

We will update when the slot module is complete! Until then,

Team MA

A good week!

Some good news from Team MA!

The wedge is DONE. And better still, it works well. After some testing and revision, the wedge slides easily into place, admits balls, and stays there.

The CAD is (very nearly) DONE. Three of our most critical modules (wedge, slot, topbot) are 100% modeled, but we are still making revisions to the design of our fourth module. We do not anticipate construction on this module to be complex or time intensive. However, when we're not in the lab, this will receive most of our attention in group meetings, which means it should be completely modeled by the end of the week.

Fabrication is also going well. We cut most of the body parts of the topbot, laser-cut the paddles, milled the sleeves, and cut and milled the axle mounts. The next step is to laser-cut the slot bracket parts, and water-jet the metal slot components and the topbot body. This should be completed by Tuesday, then we can drill the necessary holes in these parts, turn the axles, and begin assembly on all of our modules.

The team is optimistic about being able to finish preliminary fabrication with plenty of time to test, practice, and revise our design!

-Team MA

Budget Woes

The team met tonight to discuss the work ahead of us this week. After taking a second look at our budget for the project, we realized that even with our recent redesigns, our design put the budget for extra parts a whopping $60 over the allowed $100. To fix this, we made some necessary sacrifices in performance to accommodate cheaper parts. Primarily, we switched out the bearings on the top bot for bushings. This is obviously the less efficient choice for this design, but cut over $20 from what we would have to spend on bearings. We also had to take a second look at our bracket, which if we choose to make out of 1/4'' aluminum, would cost half of the available $100. We decided instead to use a combination of the 1/16'' aluminum, 1/4'' wood, and 1/4'' aluminum given to us in the kit to make a bracket that is both cheap and strong enough to do what we need it to do.

We plan on starting construction of the paddles, bracket, wedge, and top bot plate on Tuesday. If things go smoothly in the lab, we should be able to mostly, if not fully, complete all of these components. Many of our other components cannot be started until we receive the parts from McMaster-Carr and other product dealers, which were ordered tonight. We anticipate these arriving at the end of this week, allowing us to complete the slot module and the wedge module by early next week, with the top bot not far behind.

Looking forward to getting started on manufacturing!

-Team MA

MS6: Most Critical Module

Last night, the team met to complete all engineering on our most critical module, in order to be prepared for today's meeting with Davor. The meeting was productive and enlightening, but the team encountered some obstacles along the way:

While composing the bill of materials, we realized that, though using a solid aluminum plate would certainly be the most robust design for our slot brackets, the supplies required are far beyond our budget. Unless we wanted to be $200 in the red, violating the rules, and draining our bank accounts, we had to change something. We could either change the design or the materials used in the bracket. Unfortunately, plastics, the cheapest option for what we need, are typically not very good for structural purposes. Therefore, we changed the design of the bracket, keeping only the members which were absolutely necessary to the design. In order to be efficient with our use of materials, we also had to change the design to be composed of several small parts. This increases manufacturing time, but is not a significant issue.


On a better note, after a helpful and successful meeting with Davor, we are fully on track to begin production of the slot module next week, directly after the production of the wedge. This weekend will be spent finalizing the engineering for the top bot and the wedge launcher.

We are staying busy... which means we're on schedule!

Until next time,

-Team MA

Progress Update #1: Engineering Drawings

We can see the light at the end of the (first) tunnel!

Team Mechanical Advantage is almost at the end of the design phase! Currently, we are working on producing drawings for our modules so that we can get into the shop next week and start manufacturing. We have already fully completed the drawings for the wedge module, and will be finalizing those for the bracket/slot modules tomorrow night. Because these three modules are so interconnected, we have yet to decide what is our "Most Critical Module". Unfortunately, additional rule changes forced us to redesign our slot module (again), putting us one or two days behind schedule with our CAD. Luckily, we are still comfortable on time, even with this setback. The top bot drawings are relatively simple, and should be completed by early next week. We have also been busy creating parts lists and deciding which components to buy from McMaster-Carr.

As we complete drawings and solid models in the next few days, sample pictures and drawings will be posted on the blog! Fabricating and testing of the wedge will also commence next week, to ensure that everything is going smoothly.


-Team MA