Building MCM

For the past week, we met to decide the engineering drawings of the MCM. Most of the details of the MCM (e.g. dimensions) were worked out. Starting this week, we can use the waterjet and laser cutting machines to manufacture our parts. We plan to complete 3 parts of our MCM, namely, the box, the base and the guide rails by Friday 20th Nov, and the last 2 parts, the rod and the motor holder will be completed next week.

Here is a summary of what we are planning to do for each of our MCM Part:

1. Box

-We decided to use 2 different materials for the sides of the box, the hardboard and the birch baltic plywood. We decided to use the acrylic for the top of the box so that we can look at the process of the machine working, making it easier to detect errors if anything goes wrong. We will laser cut the whole entire material along with hole on it to make everything as precise as possible.




2. Base

- We bought a material for our base; a thick aluminum plate with attached rubber padding on its bottom. We needed this material as the rubber on its bottom provides us with a higher coefficient of friction that will prevent the whole base to slide along the arena's carpet. For its manufacturing process, we will water jet the whole material to get the precise shape and size of it. As for the holes, we decided to drill them using the drilling machine.


3. Guide Rails

- This is really tricky to make, especially with the materials that we have. We decided to use the thin, wide piece of aluminum, 1/ 16" thick and water jet them along with the holes to their planned sizes and shape; a base and curved beams. Then, we will use screws and nuts to constrain the water jetted plates, making them into the shape of the guide rails that we wanted.


4. Guide Rails Rod

-First, we cut a 3/8" aluminum rod to its specific length that we wanted using the bandsaw. Then, we decided to lathe the ends of the rod. The ends will be lathed so that it will fit to the guide rails perfectly. This should be relatively easy.

5. Rack and Pinion Motor Holder

-The motor holder will comprise of pieces of plywood and thin steel sheet. We decided to laser cut the plywood and water jet the thin steel sheet to its planned size and shape. For its assembly,
we decided to use epoxy glue to constrain the pieces of plywood and thin steel sheet.


Additional Note:
Also, we solved the problem of driving our rack and pinion inside the arena. The solution was to use one side of the double gear box, and attach a gear at the end of the shaft. The motor will rotate in the x-axis, the shaft will rotate in the y-axis, and the spur gear attached to the shaft will drive the rack in the z-axis.