Week 7 (03-07-18): Welding, Setting Concrete, and Testing

During this week, I hunkered down and completed some of the welding tasks that needed to be done on the hot rolled steel flat bar and the square tubing. In addition to this, Kevin started mixing concrete for us to test the welded pieces on. We started pouring, mixing, packing, and flattening three of the four compelted bases with flat bar and square tubing. While the concrete was curing, I finished up all 80+ welds that needed to be completed for the base. By getting this much experience and repetition in, I was able to get a quick hang of creating a proper weld. and learned to adjust the current levels of the TIG welder in order to control the amperage of the arc and not melt holes through the thin square tubing. We came across another setback and forgot to weld the nuts on the hot rolled steel flat bar, so it looks like 80+ more welds to compelte. I think I should be good and will get this work done by next week.

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Week 14 (05-02-18): Finishing up the Supports & Putting the Track Together

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....

Week 15 (05-09-18): Final Presentation

This week, we gathered at the Student Union to finish up the last presentation of the semester. We met up several times to ensure that our last presentation had the proper flow and clarity so that anyone who hasn't encountered Spartan Superway will know the scope of our project. Most of the time was spent ensuring that all of the work we did this semester was covered comprehensively. We even included a master slide system and an appendix section for all of the miscellaneous FEA Analysis and manufacturing questions that members of the crowd might ask. The last presentation of the Spartan Superway Track Design and Manufacturing team is shown below: Now it's time to get ready for Maker Faire!

Week 9 (03-21-18): Creating The Turn Sections & Cleaning Up The Concrete

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.

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

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