Spartan Superway

This week we spent some time grinding the last of the welds and started assembling the track bender.  We had several design challenges and some fit and finish issues, but ultimately succeeded in finishing the new track bender.  The process of bending the rails is not as smooth as we had hoped but we do obtain successful bends.  One of the challenges is that the caster wheels we are using are not strong enough to resist the force of the bottle jack pressing against them.  These will eventually need to be replaced, but they should do fine for this semester.

During this week, presentations continued and groups finalized their designs.  Many groups are running into manufacturing issues with the makers space water jet cutter being down.  They discussed potential improvisations and how they will proceed.  For small scale, we had a monumentous accomplishment of completely finishing all of the welding required and we can now focus on assembling the track bender.

This week was the start of the 2nd presentation.  The presentations had to be cut short because of the move of the guide way from campus to the 115 Terraine St location.  The remainder of the class was spent purchasing our final materials and setting up reimbursements with Tinan.  We believe we have everything we need ordered.  Also, I found a family friend that can provide access to basic welding equipment!  Hopefully it will be enough for us to complete what we need to.

Spring Break This week was Spring Break and no class was held.  Our team was back home visiting family and did not meet.

This week the team sorted through aluminum bar specs to see what series of aluminum we should be using.  Below is our in progress spreadsheet listing the vendors we've been looking at. Spartan Superway Small Scale Aluminum Sourcing Vendor Checked Type of Aluminum Available Our dimensions of 1/4" thick, 1" wide, 4ft long available? Yield Str Hardness COST NOTES MCMASTER CARR 6061 NO. 1/4"x1" in 3' or 6' 35,000 95 $7.70 EA for 3' $13.51 for 6' 3003 Series has a 40% lower yield strength and a 58% lower Brinell hardness. Much easier to bend. MCMASTER CARR 3003 NO. 1/4"x1" in 3' or 6' 21,000 40 $60.59 for 3' $108.19 for 6' MCMASTER CARR 6063 YES 21,000 60 $12.65 for 4' $19.16 for 8' - MCMASTER CARR 1100 NO. 1/4"x1" in 3' or 6' 15,000 30 $10.00 for 3' $17.25 for 8' Maybe buy this in 8' and cut in half MIDWEST STEEL SUPPLY 6061 YES 35,000 95 $10.56 EA One of la...