SteamEngine

This is designed for a person working on a project for 4 weeks as part of a 3 credit class.

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Week0 Preferences
''Your class negotiated 5 or 6 projects to do the rest of the semester. Please rank, in order of preference, your highest through lowest project names.''

Week1 Narrative
This week during the production of the steam engine project the team focused on the fabrication of the fly wheel and sled system that will help strengthen the piston arm.

We used wood that was located in the shop. the wood was comprised of pressed wood fibers. during our design discussion we decided that the fly wheel would have a diameter of 16 inches. To cut the diameter of the wheel needed we had to build a guide to keep the cutting as close to a circle as possible. We chose to use a piece of plexi glass that was 12 inches long. The length exceeded the radius of the fly wheel of 8 inches. We drilled a guide hole in the plxi glass 9 inches from the edge. We cut a hole in the plexi glass using 1.5 inch auger bit. this hole allowed the Dremel had to go through the hole and the neck of the Drelmel to be tighten, clamping down on the plexi glass. After drill a hole in the center of the wood the same drill bit was used to slide through both the plexi glass and into the wood. A tile cutting bit was used on the Dremel to cut through the wood. the process used to cut through the wood was performed in layers. this allowed for a smoother cutting process as well as increasing the odds of not abusing the equipment.

We discussed possible ways of strengthening the piston arm for the steam engine. We decided to use a sled system made out of 1.5 inch I.D. (inside diameter) PVC and 1 inch I.D PVC. The PVC pipe section were cut 12 inches long, and then cut along the spring line of the pipe section. This gave use two section of each size of the pipe. The team decided that we would mount 1 of the 1.5 I.D. piece of pipe to the steam engine and mount a section of the 1 inch I.D. to the piston arm.

Week2 Narrative
This week we worked on the how to mountting the sledge unit to the steam engine to support the pistion saft. We also desided on the mounting and attachment of the push arm to the flywheel.

The portion of the sled that is comprised of the 1.5 inch I.D. was looked at by the team to be mounted to the underside of the piston chamber. This would allow for the track to exstend 4 inches short of the full exstention of the piston. At this point is where the smaller sled comprise of 1 inch I.D. PVC will be mounted to the Tee section of the piston arm. This will allow for the sled to exstend past the end of the track 3 inches an still suport the piston arm. we diced to use PVC primer and cement for the connection agents.

The team held a design review meeting to disscuss if the sled system was need to be adappted to incoroprate a locking notchinng system around the tee join on the piston shaft. This cahnge was looked at from many different angles as to how to lessen the friction facton (wear) of the edge of the sledge riging the tack wich may form a grove. this groce would shorten the life of the track. we looked at was the shorten life use of the track worth the design change.

Since we had two tacks and two sleds we decided to incoporate the design change into one sled and see what the increase of friction would be. Frist we moved the sled along the track by hand and not only felt the amount of resistant but also listend to the amount of resistance. After incoprorating the design changes the team went through the same testing process and it was apparent that the friction had been magnified greatly.

The team decided to revist the sled and track support system after the complete assembly of the rest of the steam enginee.

We decided to attach the push arm comprissed of a 22 inch long pice of 1 inch I.D. PVC to the fly wheel. We decided to use a pice of 3/4 inch all thread and nuts and bols. the key to this connection is to allow for the movment of the push arm by not over tightening the nuts. we decided to glue the nuts in place on the all thread this would make sure the nuts do not lossen or tighten over time.



Week3 Narrative
This week the team looked at the isuuse of connecting the push arm to the piston rod. The connection assembly mecanizim had to able to absorb the virticle motion of the push arm while transferring horizontal force on the piston arm. The team perform research on diffferent type of joint assemblies. After reaserch the different type of joint assemblies the team came together in a diesgn review meeting to disscuss what joint assemblies we had discoved that may work.

The team decided on the use of a cross head joint. This joint had all the caracterists that is required for the steam enginee. We decided to build the cross head joint out of 1 inch I.D. PVC. The size of the cross head joint will be very proportionate to the weight of the joint. So we decided to make the joint as small as possible. the compnents for the assembly of the cross head joint are as follows: 2) 1 inch long striaght pieces 1) tee 2) 90 degree bends 2)3 inch long stright pieces 1) 9 inch long 3/4 inch all thread 4) 3/4 inch washers 4) 3/4 inch nuts

Week4 Narrative
This week our team worked on the Final Presentation of the Steam Engine project. We work on organization of our projects Wikiversity Page as well as preparing the project for presentation.

The projects Wikiversity page was comprised of the information contained in the first groups Wikiversity page as well as the information that was gathered from our current groups Wikiversity page. This information was extracted and placed in the appropriate formatting and context for the Final Project page. The information gathered is very informative as to the actual process steps that followed to produce a finished project.

The Conceptual design information was gathered from the first teams Wikiversity web page. The design phase was comprised of a combination of the first team and the second teams Wikiversity page. The implementation was derived form the second teams Wikiversity page. This process worked very well as the information from both teams was posted to each individuals Wikiversity page as it was meant to be.