| .:. Team Estrogen .:. Team Estrogen Owns You! |
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Journal: As things occur, updates will be posted as to progress made, lessons learned, modifications added and anything else that happens to us. All members of Team Estrogen should post to the journal regularly.13 September 2002 Thus Far: We have a proposal for a sand driven, magnetically geared, glycerin/iron filing composed, flippable kinetic sculpture. We all agree that it owns. See proposal for details. See CAD soon for images. The idea was inspired by a variety of kinetic sculptures and childhood toys, and continues to grow as we think about a variety of design issues. As for our team, our dynamic is great. All members exhibit terrific ownership. Consensus is frequently (if not always) achieved. While we are constantly coming up with complications in the design, this is not a setback - as a result, our sculpture becomes more aesthetically pleasing (case in point: driving mechanism. If it is too fast, gearing down [which we want to avoid] - instead, we came up with an hour-glass sand wheel, which will look very beautiful along the side of the sculpture). Things to do: ~ investigate
glycerine properties, other fluid properties for those desired And this certainly isn't everything - just what I can think of now. 16 September
2002 Monday: Things To Do: ~Inform Joles
of design setbacks 18 September 2002 Spoke with
Burt and Dave about design. Decided best process would be to initially
design gear train for modeling, then focus on aesthetics, ie magnets.
Team hopes to utilize bearing balls to power turnstyle. Began research
on using planetary gear structure to gear down power with other gears
radiating outward. Idea suggested that problems with magnets could be
lessened by placing magnets on every other gear. Team also examining domain
names like www.teamestrogen.org (teamestrogen.com is already registered). 20 September
2002 This morning we had project with Bill, our sculptor consultant, Zhenya, and Dave. A few decisions were made to only be reversed or questioned in later discussion. We are currently at a point where we need to decide whether to continue with our sculpture idea involving cocktail umbrellas, or if we want to put in the work to try to incorporate some of our original asthetics. The major issue in our group causing friction is ownership. We agreed that ownership and enthusiasm are necessary to keep this fun and gain the best result possible. At this point whether we actually own it or not is debatable; Burt and Zhenya seem to have had a lot of input into a design that was supposed to be student-run. We did accomplish a few technical details in class. First, it was brought to our attention that our sculpture, a large 1mx.5m, was mounted on a comparably small bearing. The whole sculpture was liable to tilt off the wall, which we brainstormed solutions to counteract. Second, our research into planetary gears provided results as to how to connect the largest gear to others. It would be easy to belt the gear either by cutting shallow grooves into the outside or adding a friction inducing material to the outside. Another solution in consideration is that we could just concentrate on the driving mechanism and the planetary gear without adding additional gears. This weekend we are all spending time contemplating the different options we have out there, looking for the middle ground that would appease everyone and follow all the set guidelines. 25 September
2002 Perhaps our greatest accomplishment over the last few days was the three hours we spent staring at iron filings on Sunday. Armed with a Leatherman, we broke apart a MagnaDoodle(tm) for its iron filings, put the filings into a glass full of mineral oil, and went at it with a couple of magnets. We ran a few different experiments: first, just the two different magnets in the glass of oil and filings (one magnet was a very weak refridgerator magnet, the other was a slightly stronger one from a speaker). The filings followed both, although obviously the stronger magnet allowed for faster movement. Then we submerged a salt shaker into the glass of oil (the dining hall staff, by this point, just loved us) so that we could simulate a thinner layer of mineral oil, as we would hope to do with our sculpture between two panes of glass. This just made it easier for the magnets to attract the filings since the fields did not have to penetrate as much volume. Given these results, then, we think that a couple of problems have been addressed:
One other thing we think might be helpful is to have a relatively strong magnet permanently fixed above the tank. In our messing with our materials, we put the speaker magnet onto the top of the glass, and it kept the filings suspended for a very, very long time. Between this and the viscosity of the oil, then, we have a good chance of keeping the filings off the bottom of the tank. We're going to run more tests later, possibly this time using a more comparable kind of glass -- like a fish bowl or other tank with a flat, planar face that is more like our sculpture idea, just to be sure that our findings from this experiment will hold. We actually had another meeting on Sunday before our filing playtime, in which we decided a couple of things. Our new dimensions are 12" by 18", we'll be using Delrin(tm) gears for their weight, friction coefficient, and general coolness, and we're also going to make the backboard out of steel instead of aluminum. This last part came about because Joles's welding instructor can get us a deal on the steel and will help her in the welding, which just makes life that much better. Between today and tomorrow we're going to finish up the project description and sketches, I should have the precise dimensions on the resevoir to do our first calculations for the torque we're going to get out of the power source, and Joles has completed a parts list and working budget and is also in the midst of the fabrication process description. Burt also came by today to help us out on the math thing, and we're going to meet with Zhenya this afternoon to talk gear ratios. And Saturday... Team Estrogen is going out for Indian food. 27 September
2002 So all our experiments were, to an extent, in vain, since Dave Anderson told us that our original diameter for the turnstile (3") is not nearly large enough to generate the torque we'd need just to turn the first gear; instead, we'd need *at least* 6". So a meeting last night has pretty much simplified the sculpture to a much larger turnstile on the driving mechanism (the hourglass) with some aesthetically pleasing component on the axle. At this point, however, we're leaving our proposal with the cocktail umbrellas because so much work has been done toward that, and we figure it's easier to remove components (budget, fabrication, and approval-wise) than it is to add them. Proposal work continues. Caitlin and Kim are, as I type, discussing the torque calculations with Zhenya, while Joles puts all our proposal stuff into PDF files. Look for those to appear on our site soon. 02 October
2002 Working Model is our collective new best friend; it solves all our physics ails and looks pretty too. A good portion of today was spent learning how Working Model works, and hopefully we will be proficient enough to actually use it to model our sculpture and predict our forces. While working on this, Burt, Zhenya, and Jill came around to comment on our proposal, turned in Monday. Zhenya wanted more actual numberical data and predictions; she fears our bearing balls will not create enough torque to drive the gear train. Burt would also like some more math before actual approval, although he is more focused on the volume of the bearing resevoir and solving a differential equation for the frictional losses in the gear train. Mikell is working on the volume while Joles is solving for the frictional losses. Jill has very few concerns about our sculpture; to the contrary she actually brought us a gear train toy to "measure" the amount of force needed to start an extremely high friction gear train. Currently we need to edit and add to our proposal by Monday for final approval and learn some wicked Working Model skills. 07 October
2002 Nothing says Monday morning quite like recreating solidworks renditions. Searching for gears to import into solid works proved to be more difficult than expected, although Mikell is perservering in the search. Solidworks is Kim's bitch. Initial calculations of the angular velocity of the whole train, based upon conservation of energy, have been completed. Joles is entering the calculations into PDF. Results show that a significant angular velocity is created by one bearing ball falling, thus showing that there will actaully be a kinetic aspect to our kinetic sculpture. Granted, these results are based upon the asumption that the sculpture is frictionless, all the engergy is conserved, and all of the gears are discs, but it is at least a start. More modeling can be done using Working Model. The project is progressing, which is a good thing since we have a second proposal due less than two weeks. 09 October
2002 Armed with ChupaChups and the chocolate Joles yoinked from the library candy dish, we spent the morning modelling our various parts of our sculpture. Joles is a Working Model stud and has very nicely created a virtual turnstile, and through some trial-and-error has managed to create a setup that will not jam (go her!). The rest of us have been doing SolidWorks -- Kim has been building the backboard and reservoir, Caitlin has been playing with PhotoWorks to make some very lovely umbrellas (and has learned how to mate inanimate objects...), and I've been fighting with a gear-building program all morning. Image files should be up pretty soon here. On Friday we plan to create a physical mock-up -- look for pictures of that as well. Budget update: we emailed Prof. Woodie Flowers about a possible deal on our materials from Small Parts (based on his association with FIRST and their sponsorship from Small Parts). He said that likely is not possible, as FIRST is still negotiating with them, but offered some budget help anyway. It doesn't look like we need it right now, but with some possible materials changes (specifically, the bearing balls), we may need it. We'll see. Proposal update: Proposal v. 2.0 is out to Burt and Zhenya. We got a signature and "change some stuff" from Zhenya, and a "I have to meet with Zhenya" from Burt. Look for our (hopefully) final proposal within the next week. 11 October
2002 SolidWorks rocks! Today has been spent modeling and owning our design. Although Caitlin is out of town, we've been fairly productive. Joles is playing with the turnstile and bearings in Working Model (she's our Working Model stud), while Mikell and I have been Solid-Working the hard and curvy things, aka the gears and turnstile. We're making progress, but it seems we'll be doing a lot of modeling in the next week before our proposal is due. To make our day even happier, we wandered down to admissions and picked up plywood and foam for free, which we can hopefully use for prototyping or maybe even our actual sculpture. Any way to cut the budget is a good thing. As far as our proposal goes, right now we think we're pretty well off, but Burt is insistent that we should all understand the math, not just put the correct math in our proposal. We also need to rework our hand drawings in pen and rescan before resubmitting. Overall it looks like we should be o.k., but we will be holding a lot of meetings in the next week, as we have no classes until our deadline next Friday. We own! 18 October
2002 Just realized it's been a long time since I've posted. And since I'm still up, I guess it's my turn to rehash tonight and the last week. Some big news is that I visited a steel yard over the weekend, found some georgeous bearings and ended up with them for free - remember to send Izzy a picture when we're done. As for the proposal, we started at around 1:30 this afternoon - Caitlin finishing up some math, Kim SolidWorking, Miks updating the website, me trying to get a VisualNastran model to work. Left for welding, more to tell Dave what size pieces of steel we want than to weld, and left early. When I got back, they had a workingmodel that works every time, Caitlin had entered all her math into text, most of the solidworks was done and everyone had gotten a little break in. Caitlin and I set about LaTeXing the math - I think she's hooked. Grant taught me how to get images in and IT WORKS EVERY TIME! Miks started creating image files for the proposal, Kim continued to SolidWork the reservoir - our hardest piece. As things started getting done (fabrication plan, images, as much LaTeX as I could pawn off, it because merely a process of compilation, so I sent them to bed. Now it's done. I hope. I don't know if I will be going to class, since I should already be certified on all these machines from last year, and really need to sleep now. I hope this proposal gets through. Tonight might have been an 18 hour trip, but we've been working on this steadily all week. I'm really glad we didn't need a poster for tomorrow - this is enough. 7 November
2002 So, it has been a while since the last post, especially by me. In the past two nights, Team Estrogen has made significant progress in prototyping. The cardboard model was made last week which was useful in solidifying the spatial image of the sculpture and turnstile design. Yet, since this was not something we could not run, this week is wood prototype week. Hopefully, this will prove that everything works, but questions have been raised during construction as to whether the turnstile will jam or not. Ideally, many components from the wood prototype (turnstile, gear board, etc) will be reusable. Power tools are now a close friend of Team Estrogen. Kim is currently cleaning the lovely, but rusty, monster bearing. WD40 rocks! Perhaps all the rust will finally be off by Thanksgiving but regardless, it is certain that Kim will have some toned arms by the end of this. Everyone important agrees that our prototype is, quote unquote, bitchin'. Either tonight or in class tomorrow, the entire prototype will be completed. YAY. Once completed, final design modifications can be made as needed and everything will finally come to life. MWAHAHA!!!! 13 November
2002 Prototyping is wrapping up. It is obvious that this is a workable design, but there are some major concerns which need to be addressed. Gear Train: this is definitely going to work, provided the holes are drilled correctly the first time. This is easier said than done, but as long as they are too close the first time they are drilled, it is easy enough to slightly enlarge the hole to make it fit perfectly. Turnstile: this needs to be remade. The current acrylic version is melted together, somewhat fragile, and uneven. It will probably work a lot better if it is two flat circles instead of one, so it doesn't pitch in the casing. Brian recommended using the CNC mill to make perfectly identical fins. Reservoir and Feeder: Miks has analyzed the jamming problems, and has added little guards to minimize these. The feeder jams far less frequently, and we now have a few better ideas for the final project, to prevent jamming. Caitlin is investigating reservoir inhibitors which might decrease the jamming there, and also could lengthen the run time. Most of the folks with whom we've spoken recommend using smaller bearing balls. I'm going to look into the price of BBs next. Kim is doing budget - we keep changing it and she's doing a great job of keeping up. 21 November
2002 So it's Thursday night before our trial exhibition and things are fun. We've decided to use our prototype as our final, with the appropriate modifications; this is a big change from our originally intended rebuild with steel; as it turned out, our steel source was not reliable. Also, we've bought 12 000 BBs on the outside chance we find that they work better than our bearing balls; this is still subject to testing. Our gear board has been drilled, the gears have been mounted on their axles either by press-fits or by cotter pins, and "feet" have been placed on the top and bottom of our reservoirs to allow 1) for bolting of the acrylic and 2) for the ability of our sculpture to "stand" better since it's no longer wall-mounted. Problems we still have to deal with... well, mostly the turnstile. We have one that Jill fabricated for us, but we're afraid it may be too heavy for our purposes -- that turnstile may require the bearing balls in place of the BBs. Our other option is to keep a turnstile out of acrylic like the one we had for our prototype, but we'd have to remake it with 1) larger fins to prevent BBs sliding by [note: this has since been fixed by adding an additional side panel of wood to the feeder path], 2) a better method of attaching the fins (soldering them didn't work too well), and 3) some way to prevent BBs from getting in between the turnstile and the backboard and the turnstile and acrylic. Our turnstile design is likely what we will focus on after Thanksgiving break; I think we are comfortable with everything else at this point. The Powerpoint presentation for tomorrow is mostly finished (I'm awaiting a couple of possible Working Model simulations from Joles), the website is being updated as I type (obviously), Caitlin is finishing the updates to the report, and Joles is drilling the gear board... we should assemble our whole sculpture soon. Kim is currently doing her math project since she spent a good part of the last night and tonight doing new SolidWorks files (with beautiful results, I might add). Things are looking good, albeit sleepless... |