Apologies, we missed a week of posting, but are back on track again this week. Some great things happening in the shop, so let’s get to it.
Junior Tanzurul Azam had several projects in the works last week.
This week was a shortened week because we had monday off due to MLK Jr day but despite that I managed to get a couple things accomplished. The waterjet cutter was recently fixed up so I learned how to use it with the help of the guide written by Aaron BenDaniel. I was cutting a part for Mr. Christy’s scooter, apparently it was the bottom cover for the scooter. The cut came out well and I gained some knowledge on how to use the water jet. Unfortunately for some reason the waterjet grazed the interior part of the cut causing a streak.
I also finally got to making a birthday gift for someone whos birthday was over two weeks ago, so it’s only a little bit delayed. I decided to waterjet cut this one too but I didn’t actually do the cutting I just designed the file and sent it off to Aaron to show William Tseng how to use the waterjet because he had to change his guide. I did however get to use the metal bender for the first time which was pretty interesting.
In terms of the zoetrope I am having a slight internal conflict because I can’t decide on how I want to move forward with the project so progress has been very stagnant. I don’t like the walls idea because it looks ugly but I can’t seem to get the zoetrope to function in daylight. I might just make a big pivot and specialize the zoetrope for the darkness so I don’t have to use the ugly walls, and put more of my focus towards designing an impressive animation that way I can gain back some motivation because trying to make this work in the light has been a big wall I can’t seem to get past leading to my motivation being low. The natural light of the shop is very bright which makes it difficult to properly gauge how this would function in a regular room. The walls do offer a solution it just feels really lazy and ugly and I would much rather have this project be impressive and only work in the dark than look mediocre but work anywhere.
See photos of his work at his website, linked here.
Senior Anthony Cartolano was beginning to cut out his basketball jersey project.
This week I finally starting making my jersey frame a reality. We had MLK day on Monday and Mr. L was absent Tuesday, so I wasn’t able to route until the middle of the week. While I was waiting for Mr. L’s return, me and a few of my fellow classmates took down the flood gates that we put up last week in anticipation of the storm over the weekend. There wasn’t a single drop, so we folded everything up and put them away for the next storm. After that, I recruited Milo Austin to help me start routing my jersey. The first step was making DXF files of all the different sides of my frame in order to get them on VCarve in the shop (Vcarve is the application used to set things up for the router). We were able to get everything in, however we faced several challenges that stood in out way.
The first challenge was that we had to delete some nodes so that way each piece that needed to be cut separately were separated for each other, which took a little but but we eventually figured it out. The second problem was that once we made everything have their own induvial nodes, we needed to select the whole piece to cut it out of the wood. We fixed this by adding another rectangle on top of what we already had, which worked. Once that was all said and done, we were ready to route. We put the appropriate drill but in, zeroed everything, put the vacuum on, then routed. The process itself took about two periods worth of sitting there and watching, but it the end it was all worth it. I used some pliers to get the tabs out, and after that I lined everything up to see how it looked. I’m very happy with how it turned out, and tomorrow I’ll sand everything and make sure the LEDs and hinges fit good.
Learn more about his project at his website, linked here.
The Sophomores continue to work on the LED Lightbox project. A few students are very close to finishing, while most have completed the electronics portion and are moving to the CAD aspect of the project.
MVTHS Engineering 
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