Engineering Projects/StrandBeest/My Work

Write problem/project Goal
Design and Create a StrandBeest

My First Task
To bring to the global page the highlights of the work done by the previous group.

Aditional tasking was to research the working of the mechanism that create movement within the Beests and to create a base knowledge to draw from. This was a general tasking to be done by each member seperately.

Summary of actual work over first weekend
Updated the global page with the cream of the crop from the previous groups work. Also researched and created a leg assembly from Jansen's design.

Week1 Narrative
I have edited the previous groups work where apropriate due to preceived negativity within the group, added content that may or maynot be new since the time the previous group worked on the project. Updates to their work include adding 2 additional links and additional written content. The spirit and intention of the previous group has been maintained to the best of my ability. 18 edits of the global page to include 5 minor edits. To meet the spirit of the additional tasking I build 1 leg assembly from Jansen's original design HERE.


 * /Week1 Photos/

My Second Task
My tasking for the second weekend is to design the drive assembly. Another member of the group is also going to work this same assignment seperately. Tuesday we will compare and take the best ideas from the two designs and merge where aplicable. A third member of the group will design the hinges and the forth will measure out and cut of required pieces.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
I designed and built a model of the drive assembly.



Week2 Narrative
While the exact dimentions of the strandbeest hasn't been hammered out yet, I designed a drive assembly from an approximation. The first problem I had to deal with was the materials and tools. This was only intended to be a model so after failing a second time trying to bend a thick wire I had bought for the crankshaft the first weekend I decided to go for ease of use and work with plastic. This actually lead me to the same straight angle design that my group-mate thought of as well... Great minds. 1 groupmember did not attend class on tuesday so his progress is unknown.


 * /Week2 Photos/

My Third task
My task for the third weekend so far is to research the cost of having a crankshaft professionally welded. Additional tasking for each member is to start migrating cream of the crop of each "mywork" section to the group page.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
one of the things I decided to do differantly is create a -->> /tutorial/ <<-- to progress the group page. Additionally I sanded and filed all of the wooden pieces to prevent the rubbing problems we were having with the models we've built.

Week3 Narrative
The first thing I focused on was moving some of my work to the group page, I had starting moving some things from my teammates pages but thought that they should be the ones to choose which they wanted or at least for everyone to agree on it. Next I spent another day at home depot trying to get ideas for materials and construction of the crank shaft. I am becoming very familiar with the layout of that store since i have been in there for at least 5 hours in the past 3 weeks working on this and another of my own projects. One day I was able to get out of work to spend a day in the school filing and sanding all of the pieces of the leg assemblies to avoid the rubbing that we were experiencing with the model Brian had made. This made a considerable mess and took far longer than I had expected when I undertook this task. After I completed this i got around to testing out some of the ideas I had for the shaft. Ideas: copper piping with small welds was rejected because the welds would have to be done around the wooden assmblies with very little room, PVC elbow joints was rejected due to the fact that they would require a large gap between the part of the leg assembly attached to the "spindle" part of the crankshaft and the part that attached to the "raised" part of the crank. The pieces of wood that were designed to be flat against each other would be forced to have a 40* angle and this would cause scrapping and rubbing from each leg rendering it imobile. Wood glue was rejected based on my testing but this needs revisiting, the instructor says the woodglue is sound but requires a flat piece and small amount. Unfortunately there may not be time enough for continued testing.


 * /Week3 Photos/

The nail in the ends of dowel was the best bet in my testing. While ineligant it seems to have held fairly well. The dowel would have to be of sufficiant diameter to allow multiple nails. This is however extremely difficult to construct around the legs and would only allow for minimal preconstruction. Several hinges were also designed and tested. I was able to find already in the possesion of the engineering supplies plastic tabs that fit nicely and with the application of a little super glue seem to be able to withstand the forces of the moving assembly.

My Fourth task
Each member was tasked with the construction of two leg assemblies. I was also Tasked with continued work on the crank shaft.

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
I came in to school and constructed two leg assemblies. Additionally I continued work on the crank shaft.

Week4 Narrative
The bulk of the remaining work was assembling the legs of the beest. I came into school and put together the two that i was assigned to do. I noticed the others hadnt yet come so i was going to put one or two more together but couldnt find the rest of the pieces required. As it turns out what i was looking for was just moved across the room. Some additional trimming of pieces will still be needed due to a problem with the number of each of the pieces, but nothing that cannot be worked around. Altimately the leg assemblies that we had agreed to put together over the weekend hadnt been assembled, save for the two i put together and the one we collectively assembled last week.


 * /Week4 Photos/

The crankshaft has continued to present difficulties for me as listed in previous narratives. However, in discusion with the group we rehashed an idea I had dismissed early and found that it may end up being our best bet. A thick, ridged wire reinforced by securing it to the wooden part of the crank from the design. Testing would need to be done and an order of parts. The best way the collective mind of the group could think of to secure it was heavy duty staples in a back and forth (zipper) design to keep the wire from moving back and forth. required part: Lincoln Electric 3/32 in. Fleetweld 180 Stick Electrode Model # ED031152

Additionally I created a 3D model of the crankshaft to provide a better understanding of what I was going for using 123D. Each member was also separately to create the project poster and e-mail it and total hours worked to each other for final group page.

Complete Project Page
Follow the "project done" format.