This week, I had met with Brian to get some help with my mechanism. Watching and working with Brian on Fusion 360 and CAD was very helpful and he showed me a lot of tips to use moving forward. I wanted to have a functional mechanism on chipboard before I went on and started with the acrylic. After my meeting with Brian, I went to the lab and cut out my chipboard.

Putting together the mechanism went a lot better than my previous iteration last week. My measurements were all correct, and every component worked well together. I found some quarter inch screws in the work bench and used them for my gears. Below was my final iteration using the chip board.

 

I was happy my mechanism came out well. However, there were a few things I would have to change when I started with the acrylic. After class I took a trip over to Lowe’s and found quarter-inch screws that were a little smaller. The screws I used in my chipboard iteration, the heads were overlapping and catching on each other. I found screws that looked more fitting for my mechanism.

Monday in class we will be showing our mechanisms, I hope mine is operable on the acrylic. The next iteration of our mechanism will be using Arduinos to power the mechanism. I am excited to progress with this project, and I hope to have a fully functional mechanism at the conclusion !

Below is my iteration using acrylic for the first time. Brian and I had cut out some spacers to ensure the fit was correct. After I laser cut the mechanism, it was time to assemble it. Assembly did not go as smooth as I had initially thought it would, but once it was all put together it operated well. There a few things I would like to go back and take a look at. My mechanism does not do a full rotation and only uses up the bottom rack, this is something that should be relatively easy to fix.

Front of Mechanism:

Back of Mechanism: