Bryan Oyan - 1/12th Scale Track Design + Manufacturing

Last week, I ground down the welded support parts that attach to the track. I finished 20 of these parts and it required a lot of patience since grinding down steel requires some time. I even had a collet for the Dremel tool break on me since the diamond tip Dremel-bit pushed the collet to open up throughout the duration of the grinding process. By trying to close up the collet to secure the bit, one of the collet's prongs broke. After these parts were completed, I started drilling holes into them to ensure that they would fit into the whole track assembly smoothly. I used the drill press and some of the brackets that Kevin finished printing. The end result of these components looks like the following image: After the support structures were put together, we assembled the track fully for the first time. Although it was a small assembly that reduced the length of the track, due to removing several straights, it allowed for the other subteams to test the bogey and controls. Over

This week, I focused my efforts on cleaning up some of the welded sections that I worked on last week. Within the square tubing, there is a slight rise that follows along the length of the tubing. This makes it impossible for these parts to slide into the support sleeves that we have already made. In order to finish up these components, I filed them down with a combination of using a Dremel tool with a diamond bit tip and Spartan Superway's file. The first image shows the excess metal that protrudes out of the inside of the square tubing. The next image shows that same protrusion grinded down with the use of the Dremel tool and shop file.

On Monday, the team met up and needed to address some of the issues that we had with the welder. Kevin was in constant communication with administration and Dan (from full-scale bogey) to ensure we were taking the correct course of action. Kevin and I took a trip to Praxair to retrieve a new tank of Argon for the remaining welds. After coming back and setting up the welder, I started and finished the welds necessary for the support structures. I encountered some issues during this process as I never found the correct way to properly weld these two components together due to the differences in thickness of the square tubing and the sheet metal. If I utilize too high of a current, the sheet metal would have a hole burnt through. However, if the current was too low, there would be no penetration of the square tubing. Even after completing 80 welds, this process was not mastered and still need to be cleaned up through other methods that will be looked into.

This week, I am finally back from Los Angeles. I worked on this presentation when I was there and we met on Monday to hash out some of the logistical issues for the delivery of Presentation 2. Angelo was going to start off this time to talk about the design requirements and specifications, I spoke about the manufacturing progress and the dependencies and contingencies, while Kevin spoke about the Gannt Chart and the current budgeting status for our team. By the end of this week, I was supposed to weld the components that Kevin prepared last week, however, we ran into some issues when the tank of Argon ran out for the welder. Luckily, I was only working on the first test piece, however, due to the lack of gas, the welds that I made became defective and created rust on the components. Kevin and I will get more information from administration to make sure we know what to do for the next steps.

This was the first week back from Spring Break for the rest of the team, however, due to personal issues I had to stay in Los Angeles for an extra week. Although I'm sidelined for this week I still intend on making a contribution to the team. I am working on completing Presentation 2 that we will be delivering, this upcoming Wednesday (04-11-18). I have already gathered the information and am close to finishing the slides. I plan on returning this Sunday in order to get back to business and finish this project strong. Although I've been gone, I've kept in contact with the team and they have filled me in on any progress for this week. Kevin has been working on preparing some support structure components in order for me to start welding. In addition, he has also created a majority of one switch section, which needs extra cuts and correct bends to be complete. Angelo has been working on creating the straight sections of the track with the 3D printed jigs that Kevin manufactu

This is the week before Spring Break and the team is motivated on gaining some headway with this project. The last couple of weeks we have mainly been doing preparation work to get some of the components of the track completed. This week, however, Kevin worked hard to complete the curve sections of the track with his bender mechanism. The completed part can be seen in the figure below: Based on last week's work, the team poured concrete into the concrete molds, found in the image below. This week, the team took apart the molds and cleaned up the concrete that sits on top of the leveling mechanism of the supports. Since some of the molds allowed minimal concrete to spill over, the team needed to break the stray hardened concrete. The finished leveling system is shown below: The team has spent a lot of time in the shop and hopefully, we are able to use this break to regain energy in order to finish strong.