April 2, 2021

Today, I generated a mock-up of an assignment called “bottle opener 4”. Images of the mock-up can be seen below.

I also generated a mock-up of another bottle opener, called “bottle opener 3”.

April 9, 2021

Today I generated my first mock-up that included moving pieces. This mock-up, called “MAD exercise #2”, consists of three pieces and has two moving pieces.

April 12, 2021

Today I generated a mock-up of another practice project called “MAD exercise #7”. This exercise was intended to give me practice creating files for CNC machining.

April 13, 2021

Today I practiced drawing an orthographic sketch, using my cell phone as a reference. The image below is a to-scale drawing of the surfaces of my phone.

April 18, 2021

For my homework tonight, I watched a TED-Ed talk by Tom Chi about rapid prototyping and its applications in the field of design. I learned that rapid prototyping is truly rapid, taking only minutes in some cases. This process uses simple and accessible materials to simulate complex designs in a shorter time than a formal prototype. As Tom Chi said, “doing is the best kind of thinking”; by prototyping, we can learn a lot by simply doing and observing. This design technique applies to my work in this class as I will need to solve an issue through a design of my own. It is extremely likely that I will not create a perfect design on my first attempt, so I will need multiple prototypes to refine the design. Through the process of rapid prototyping, I will be able to work out issues in my design quickly and efficiently, saving time and leading to a better final project.

April 19, 2021

Today I began to brainstorm and sketch for my final project of the course. I had the idea to make an improved golf ball retriever because I play a lot of golf and unfortunately find the water very often. The high price of golf balls and the frequency of my golf balls finding the water makes the sport very expensive. I am hoping to design a device that will be able to retrieve these golf balls from the water.

Here are some existing designs for golf ball retrievers that I will try to improve upon:

April 21, 2021

Today I drew up some preliminary sketches for my golf ball retriever, noting what I liked and did not like about each design. I also included some brain-storming on how to solve the issues of catching unwanted items and creating enough downforce to hold the device to the bottom of the body of water.

4/25/21

Today I watched a video about the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, a new industrial revolution sparked by modern technology and thought. Modern technological advancements have enabled humans to shift the focus of innovation away from personal improvement and towards the betterment of all of humankind. With improvements in energy systems and the advent of 3D printing, innovations can be accessed in an increasing range of places, bringing technological improvements to many more people rapidly. While some people might be scared about the potential decrease in jobs resulting from increased technological implementation, the technology will ultimately create new jobs and allow society to work more efficiently, providing benefits to billions of people. In this class, I have the opportunity to work with incredible pieces of machinery and technology to produce my designs. Because I have efficient production methods, I can spend more time focusing on the goals of my designs and potential improvements, rather than the production itself.

4/26/21

Today I began modeling my final design project, a golf ball retriever, on our software called fusion 360. I tried to incorporate my favorite elements from each sketch I drew on 4/21, and I added a few additional pieces, like vents on the sides of the front opening. I will be working on this digital model for a few more class periods.

4/28/21

Today I continued to work on the digital model of my golf ball retriever, but ran into an issue when I tried to figure out a mechanism to keep the golf balls in the retriever. I, along with my teacher Mr. Brodie, worked on brainstorming some changes to the design to facilitate the retention of the golf balls. The sketches below show some of the changes to the design. I will work on creating a digital mock-up of this design over the next few days.

HW Monday, May 3

Today I began modeling my improved golf ball retriever design on our Fusion software. I based this design on the latest sketches and made a few minor changes while modeling. The screenshot below shows the current state of the design.

CL Monday, May 3

In class today, I worked on making some minor adjustments to the digital design, primarily focusing on creating the element that will serve as the tow-rope storage. I also added a few more holes in the back of the device to facilitate water flow. During the class period, I was able to adjust the design to implement the new top piece, but I have yet to figure out how to get it to rotate. I will focus on getting this object to move during my homework time and will make a few more adjustments.

HW Wednesday, May 5

As I discussed in my previous post, I focused some time tonight on making the top storage a moving object and was successful. The image below shows the design with the top closed:

The photo below shows the design with the top open:

I also added some additional spots for water to flow through, extended the railings next to the ramp to reduce the likelihood of the device getting caught, and added the holes for the tow rope:

CL Wednesday, May 5

In class today, I worked on adding another moving door to my design. This door goes on the bottom of the device and is used to release the golf balls that have been picked up by the retriever. In addition to this door, I also added some minor adjustments, such as an extension of the front portion. The images below show the door open and closed.

HW Monday, May 10

For homework, I worked on adding dados to my design, as instructed by Mr. Brodie. As I move forward towards cutting out a physical prototype of my design, these will help to keep the various pieces in the desired places.

CL Monday, May 10

In class today, I discussed with Mr. Brodie how I should start to work on generating a physical prototype of this design. We decided that it would be good to cut the design out of 1/2 inch plywood. In order to do so, I need to adjust the dimensions of my design in Fusion 360. I expect the adjustments to take a few days.

HW Wednesday, May 12

For homework tonight, I continued to adjust the design to the new 1/2 inch material thickness. I ran into difficulty around the front rounded corners, the bottom door, and the base. The images below show the design where I adjusted the dimensions to the appropriate size.

CL Wednesday, May 12

In class today, I worked on polishing up the design to prepare for physical prototyping. Specifically, I focused on the front rounded areas and the top door. The images below show the top door and the front:

HW Friday, May 14

For homework, I worked on the finishing touches on my digital model of my design. I mostly focused on deleting unnecessary lines and bodies. I also added a rotating joint to the top door to make sure that the model moves as it should. Images of the final design (with top door open) are shown below:

5/28/21

There has been a little while since I posted on this blog. During that time, I have been working on producing the final physical version of my design out of wood. The pictures below show the model in its current state. Over the next few days, I will be adding the final pieces, including two rotating “doors” that I have shown in my digital models.