Spring 2018, Week 3: Preparing Support Section Parts

       This week, the materials required for the support section of the track, seen in Figures 1 & 2, arrived at the shop. As such, our team spent much of our time prepping the steel square tubes and bar stocks for welding. 

Figure 1: Support Section of the Track

Figure 2: Bottom Configuration of the Support Section

        

            In addition to prepping the materials, the team asked Dan from the Full Scale Bogie team to demonstrate how to use the gas welder in the shop. By next week, we hope to be able to learn how to effectively weld, so that all the support sections can be completed. After all the welding is completed, we can proceed with pouring the cement.

Spring 2018: Week 2- Lightning Talks

      For week 2 of the semester, all the sub-groups participated in Lightning Talks to discuss the current progress of the teams, as well as the goals for the upcoming semester. The slides for the Lightning Talk can be found below.  For the track and manufacturing team, our goal is to construct a switch section prototype as soon as possible.

      The only factor that can slow down our progress as of now is waiting for the aluminum order to come in from Midwest Steel and Aluminum. The parts for the support structure should be coming in the upcoming days.

      Lastly, the team has decided to abandon the metal bender in the shop. We came to this decision because we felt that metal bender could not produce the bends necessary for this project to be successful. Instead, we have opted to use the Manual Roll Bender RM-3, which actually came in the mail today.

      With Maker Faire less than 16 weeks away, time is becoming more and more valuable for our team. Nonetheless, I feel positive about the progress for our team to complete a successful small scale track.