With only two weeks of school left, this will be our last blog post of the year. Thank you to all the students and caregivers for being a part of the shop. We hope everybody has a safe and fun summer.
Here is a brief recap of last week’s activities in the shop. Junior Lila Graham ’27 was working on some final projects in the shop:
This week I continued work on gifts for various family members. I am going to see everybody soon after school is over, so I want to have them done by the end of the year, which I think is a reasonable accomplishment.
I put my uncle’s gift on hold while I looked for pictures to engrave. I did transfer the outline into Inkscape, so I have the template ready to cut. I just want to cut and engrave it in one step, so I have to find the pictures I need and sort those out in Inkscape next week.
I did some test cuts for the blocks that will make up my aunt’s gift. I decided not to engrave the pictures on hers as the orientation and quartering the pictures and figuring out what piece to put each part on seemed like a lot of unnecessary work. I will instead just cut the pieces and Mod-Podge printed pictures on once the blocks are assembled.
I also configured half of the necessary pieces for all the blocks in Inkscape so they would fit on the board I had used to cut other things (more below) and cut those out. I will likely be gluing them together tomorrow (hopefully I won’t have as much trouble with glue as in the past…) and working out how to assemble them that they bend correctly.
I laser cut these today, and the laser cutter did an amazing job as always, so I am going to have to sand the board down to get the pieces out and/or cut a few again.
I also realized this week that making gifts for my family members with May birthdays should make me inclined to make some for those with June and July birthdays, especially as I will be distributing them in June/July. In that vein, I came up with a gift for my grandmother, which is just a dodecahedron with an open top to be used as a pencil holder, vase, etc. I followed a tutorial to easily make one in Fusion and transfered the files to Inkscape. I did some test cuts to fiddle with sizing (the first one was big enough that half of the shape made a hat).
Once I found a happy medium, I cut the pieces out of wood and did some light sanding so the pieces would not be sticky. I decided not to engrave half of these as I planned because the pieces are somewhat small, and I want high-quality photos and color as well. I will hand paint half the pieces, and the others will have Mod-Podged pictures.
Next week, I will figure out what gifts I want to make for my brother and other aunt, add pictures to my uncle’s gift, finish cutting the block pieces, and start assembling the bits I can. After that, just one more week of school!
P.S. because there is no school next Friday, this could be my last blog post this year, so see you in September!
Sophomore Bruna Fontes ’28 continued work on the Sumobot Project:
onday
On this day, I spent my time working on my wheel. I plan to 3D print my wheel. I’ll drop a photo down below of my current progress.
Since this was a short day, I couldn’t finish the wheel but I do plan to get that done tomorrow.
Tuesday
On this day, I will work on the wheel again.
I finished a part the wheel. I still need to make the holes in the wheel to fit it onto the motor but other then that, I’m basically done with it.
Now that I’ve finished with the wheel, I’ll wait for it to 3D print then leave a photo here.
Wednesday
On this day, I got my wheels. Though it turns out that the holes I put are too small. Which means i have to remake them. Yay.
The good new is that the wheels themselves look right so I’m happy that turned out well. Today I have to remake my wheel since I need to and try working on my code. (if I can)
Wheels
I end up gluing my mounts to my base. When the glue dries I’ll post a picture.
Thursday
On this day, I got my new wheels and my glued base. I also got my second wheel and put rubber on it so now my mount can move (if i push it). I kinda need to figure out how I’ll make the upper part but that’s lowkey a future me problem.
Today, I want to work on code but knowing me I’m going to probably do something else.
Okay so I ended up doing something else. I made a caster for my Bot. The photo will be with the body pictures.
Friday
This day, Ill work on whatever I have left to done. That’s basically it.
Our Freshmen began a new CAD project this week, a 3D printed Steam Engine. This small project will deepen their understanding of CAD, and CAD components. Plus, at the end they will have created a working small engine!
All for now.
MVTHS Engineering 
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