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
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