Methods & Construction

Methods & Construction: Welcome

Methods

This project was created, analyzed, and Designed at the student’s house. Mostly all the parts using in the construction of this project are made by the student using balsa wood and tools that the student has. A decision matrix was made to choose which design was the better fit for the requirements. Decision to manufacture the parts was to buy a long balsa wood sticks that have already cut to the width and height that is needed on the parts, also based on what was available on the market (Analysis 1). The parts that are made of metal or plastic, like the gears, gear rack, shaft, pin, or/and the ball bearings are purchased because it will be hard to manufacture on house. The parts made of balsa wood were manufactured by using a x-acto knife and cut it to the required dimensions. For the parts that will need an angle, a jig for sharpening chisel was used.

Methods & Construction: Text

Construction

The construction of the bridge was in sequence, the parts were manufactured as the drawings number goes then the assemblies. The parts that were made of balsa wood were cut from raw material; all the dimensions of each part are located on the drawings. The parts purchased are from different suppliers, ACE hardware, Amazon Market Place, and McMaster-Carr. The parts that will be no modified will be the gears, the ball bearings, and washers.
The Methods to manufacture each part were as follow; for the parts that were made of Balsa Wood, a caliper and a ruler were used to measure the part length, a X-Acto knife were used to cut the wood, after the length of the wood was cut, it was placed on a chisel sharpening jig to sanded down the angle that was needed. For metal parts, the part was measured to the desired length and later were placed on a clamp to hold the part in place when was time to cut, the tool was a small handsaw.
Issues in the manufacturing process, messing up measurement and movements while cutting part. The glue dries faster on some parts and slower in other parts. Joining together multiples parts in one location were a challenge. Solutions: measure twice cut ones, use pressure on top of each join to maintain it flat and let it dry slow.
The bridge is composed of 4 sub-assemblies and joined with horizontal and vertical supports from one side of the bridge to the other side. The first subassembly was deck, the next subassembly were the sides of the bridge. The last subassembly was the lifting mechanism.

Methods & Construction: Text