This short film introduces our team and its members as well as how our bot was made and operates.
Enjoy
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Bill of Materials
Hers is the bill of materials used in the manufacturing of our slotbot:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aj9JLqloYMpUdE5IZy0yQkhYeU1wTUVnd1hVQnVERkE&hl=en#gid=0
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aj9JLqloYMpUdE5IZy0yQkhYeU1wTUVnd1hVQnVERkE&hl=en#gid=0
Purchased Items
| Item Purchased | Vendor | Quantity | Total Price ($) |
| Miniature Flange-Mounted SS Ball Bearing Shielded for 1/4" Shaft Diameter | McMaster-Carr | 5 | 41.10 |
| ¼” diameter aluminum rod (36”) | Home Depot | 1 | 3.31 |
| ¼”x 1.5” x 1.5” aluminum 90 degree stock | Home depot | 1 | 9.27 |
| 1.5” x 6.5” x 8” Aluminum Block | Alro | 1 | 32.00 |
| 0.5’’ spur gear | SDPI | 1 | 2.78 |
| Total |
|
| $88.46 |
Individual Reflections: Philip Felice
ME 250 was an interesting and informative class. It turned out to be a different experience than I expected. This class required more work than I have ever had to put into any single class. But in the end, it was worth all the time and effort to see our slotbot maneuvering around the competition arena.
I learned a great deal about design and manufacturing from the lectures and experiences I had in this class. To start out, the lectures taught me all the processes and materials I could use in order to optimally produce a product. The main advantage that this class offered though was after learning about these things in lecture, I could then further increase my knowledge from first-hand experience of designing and manufacturing a product. This experience was invaluable because I learned about not only the correct procedures of how I should go about the process, but also I learned about many of the obstacles that I could possibly run into when making a product.
One aspect of the process that I learned was important was time management. I learned that in order to get a project done on time you will need to create a schedule of progress due dates, so that you aren’t rushing to finish everything last minute. We were required to set a schedule, and I am thankful for that because I would never have expected this project to take as much time as it ended up taking. And even following our schedule, our group always found ourselves stressed for more time. I don’t think we could’ve completed this project without time management skills.
Teamwork is also a topic that a learned a great deal more about in this class. There are many different types of people that get together in a team, and that is why it is important to realize who you are working with. It facilitates the process having a team that works well with each other, so as long as the members of a team understand each other and treat each other with respect, there is a great chance for success. Also it is important to work with the strengths of each of the teammates, to produce a better result. Also, a final note I would like to share about what I learned about teamwork is that communication is key. As long as you and your teammates are on the same page you are on the right track and frustration is avoided. I thank my team for all their hard work.
A final important fact that I learned is to pay attention to the little details early on. This would have prevented having to redesign and remanufacture several parts of our slotbot. For example, hole locations need to be precise, and the holes themselves should be the right size. Another example is that gear locations need to be exact or else you will run into the problem where two or more gears will not mesh well which will inhibit the desired movement. If anything this fact saves a lot of time, effort, and frustration.
There are two changes to this class that come to mind to improve the experience for the student. One improvement is that the students should be given more information or guidance about the assignments that they are doing. I felt as if I was unsure of what was expected for almost every assignment that I was completing in this class. I also had talked with some other students and my teammates and they felt the same way. The second change that can be made is to make the final exam at the end of the course rather than at the end of the lectures. I feel that this is effective because the students have had experience working in the machine shop and will be better able to respond correctly to the exam questions. I felt like I learned a lot more after I took the final exam that would have helped me on it. This is one thing that I thought would’ve helped my grade in this class.
Another thing that would’ve helped my grade would’ve been asking the GSI’s more questions when it came to homework assignments. It would have cleared up some things that caused me to lose points on homework assignments and milestones.
To summarize my reflection, I know going into any future projects I will be better prepared to complete them more properly and efficiently based on the things I learned from this class.
I learned a great deal about design and manufacturing from the lectures and experiences I had in this class. To start out, the lectures taught me all the processes and materials I could use in order to optimally produce a product. The main advantage that this class offered though was after learning about these things in lecture, I could then further increase my knowledge from first-hand experience of designing and manufacturing a product. This experience was invaluable because I learned about not only the correct procedures of how I should go about the process, but also I learned about many of the obstacles that I could possibly run into when making a product.
One aspect of the process that I learned was important was time management. I learned that in order to get a project done on time you will need to create a schedule of progress due dates, so that you aren’t rushing to finish everything last minute. We were required to set a schedule, and I am thankful for that because I would never have expected this project to take as much time as it ended up taking. And even following our schedule, our group always found ourselves stressed for more time. I don’t think we could’ve completed this project without time management skills.
Teamwork is also a topic that a learned a great deal more about in this class. There are many different types of people that get together in a team, and that is why it is important to realize who you are working with. It facilitates the process having a team that works well with each other, so as long as the members of a team understand each other and treat each other with respect, there is a great chance for success. Also it is important to work with the strengths of each of the teammates, to produce a better result. Also, a final note I would like to share about what I learned about teamwork is that communication is key. As long as you and your teammates are on the same page you are on the right track and frustration is avoided. I thank my team for all their hard work.
A final important fact that I learned is to pay attention to the little details early on. This would have prevented having to redesign and remanufacture several parts of our slotbot. For example, hole locations need to be precise, and the holes themselves should be the right size. Another example is that gear locations need to be exact or else you will run into the problem where two or more gears will not mesh well which will inhibit the desired movement. If anything this fact saves a lot of time, effort, and frustration.
There are two changes to this class that come to mind to improve the experience for the student. One improvement is that the students should be given more information or guidance about the assignments that they are doing. I felt as if I was unsure of what was expected for almost every assignment that I was completing in this class. I also had talked with some other students and my teammates and they felt the same way. The second change that can be made is to make the final exam at the end of the course rather than at the end of the lectures. I feel that this is effective because the students have had experience working in the machine shop and will be better able to respond correctly to the exam questions. I felt like I learned a lot more after I took the final exam that would have helped me on it. This is one thing that I thought would’ve helped my grade in this class.
Another thing that would’ve helped my grade would’ve been asking the GSI’s more questions when it came to homework assignments. It would have cleared up some things that caused me to lose points on homework assignments and milestones.
To summarize my reflection, I know going into any future projects I will be better prepared to complete them more properly and efficiently based on the things I learned from this class.
Individual Refections: Sean Hazaray
ME 250 experience has been unlike any other class I have taken at the University so far. I have never felt so proud when we placed our bot onto the arena that Thursday afternoon. After the countless hours of work from the design to the manufacturing process, I am confident that the skills I developed in ME 250 will carry over after I graduated. It was a unique experience to see our designs that we hand sketched slowly develop into a CAD model, and eventually into an actual slotbot. I was especially nervous about the manufacturing aspect of the class, especially due to my lack of experience with tools such as the lathe and the mill. However, I can proudly reflect that from the informative workshops and the experience in the ME 250 shop, I have become a much more efficient machinist and a smarter engineer.
My favorite part of the class was the design aspect. At first, I struggled to understand the commands of Solid Works. However, the labs and the assignment, designing parts became much more easier. One of the most interesting parts about Solid Works was being able to create a movie using Motion Study in Solid Works. It took hours to figure out, but in the end, was well worth the hard work, and I think helped clarify our design in the Design Review.
From this class, we saw how hard work pays off, and how every detail counts. We learned importance of accurate tolerances. At the beginning, we decided to take the “easy” way and use the drill press rather than the mill. Because of this, our parts didn’t accurately reflect what was in our drawings, and were unusable. From that point on, we realized that we would have to analyze every detail in order to perfect our parts.
I suppose the biggest struggles for our group was trying to balance the project between all of our schedules. In addition, our first few meetings were very inefficient. However, we learned over time that we were no longer four individuals, but rather one team. Overall, we were a balanced team and each of us was comfortable with doing anything from providing the tolerances in the Solid Works drawings to manufacturing a part.
Overall, this class was very interesting but I believe that there can be a few improvements to better the students for next term. I felt the exam was a poor reflection of the material presented in class. I also think that the professors and GSIs could have been more informative about what they were looking for in the assignments and milestones. I didn’t understand how the points were distributed for some of the milestones. I think that a more detailed explanation of what the GSI’s were looking for would be very helpful to future students.
I also feel that there are a few machines in the machine shop that I did not have effective training on. I would recommend that every student gets adequate training for both, the mill and the lathe as both machines are instrumental for a solid performance in every Design and Manufacturing class. I think training on the lathe and the mill would have helped my performance considerably in this class.
Overall, I am really proud of how my team worked together throughout the term. We came over some adversity, but we learned from each other, and more importantly, we learned from our mistakes.
Traded Items
| Team Name-Item received in trade | What we gave away |
| Outside The Lines-Double gearbox | Spare ¼” rod |
| Outside the Lines-1 2 inch gear | Magnets |
| Flipadelphia-1 one inch gear | Spare 3/8” rod |
| Victorious Secret-2 one inch gears | Bearings |
| Nameless and Shameless-1 one inch gear | Spare ¼” rod |
| 250 Faculty (Mark Gordon)- Aluminum 90 Degree Angle Stock - 1"x1"x6', 1/8" thick | Aluminum 90 Degree Angle Stock - 1"x1"x6', 1/4" thick |
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