Reflection

Throughout the design, planning, and building process of our dream house we definitely learnt a lot. Not only have we overcome many obstacles, but we had to use our problem solving skills and also had to be extremely creative when it came to dealing with bumps in the road.

We found the hardest part of the project trying to fix the problems we had caused by the lack of thought of our original plans. In hindsight, we would have definitely looked over our initial idea with more consideration, this way we could have avoided problems that were extremely difficult to fix once in the building process. Such as the door issue, when we tried to build a cam and follower for the door we soon realized it would not work, as the gravity wouldn’t pull the follower back into place, leaving the door open. We decided this wouldn’t work, but not before we had already glued in the intermediate with only two holes and none for the third output. Like all our other problems, it was fixed and we soon learnt that it was even more satisfying to fix a problem than to get it right on the first try.

Overall, we definitely consider this a learning experience. We now understand how to use a drill press and the meaning of “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” since we had to work with what we had and make-do with it, problems and all. I think we both had a lot of fun, though sometimes frustrating, we enjoyed the project as a whole. 

June 2nd - June 4th 2009

our dreamhouse; finished!

Today, Tuesday June 2nd, we glued on the front of the house and made "skylights" (aka holes in the roof) so light can get through so the characters are more visible. Everything is done! We have one problem left: the crank. But we should be able to fix that tomorrow with a glue gun so it will definitely be done 100% for Thursday. 

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Today, Thursday June 4th, at lunch we put hinges on the roof so it can be opened to look inside and reveal the mechanisms. Everything is working out well for the presentation this afternoon. 

May 28th -June 1st 2009

In the past few days we have been putting finishing touches on our dream-house. On Thursday after school, we painted it, the roof: brown, the faces: pink, and the door; green. Later on, Emily painted the cat, the dog and the little girl to be glued to the cam and followers on Friday.

 

On Friday at lunch we put on some details to make it more colorful, a sparkly doorknob, a sign that says dreamhouse, a picture of us and a few little characters on the outside of the house. We also glued the characters on to the cam & followers. All that is left to do is gluing on the roof and the front of the house. 

Day 10 - May 22nd 2009

Class 1

Today in the morning we worked on resolving some issues. First, we had to make stoppers so the axle doesn't slide out of place (which later we had to take off because they wouldn't let the axle move at all) And we planned what we would do in the afternoon, such as: rather than the door opening (it was too complicated in the end) we would just make a third cam & follower, so we had to drill another hole in the intermediate, build another cam & follower, make a character, and make the door look decent.

Class 2

In the afternoon is when we got a lot done. We added hinges to the front door, they're a bit stiff but they are for decorative purposes anyways. We did everything we wanted to, and all that is left for us to do is:

- Paint the exterior

- Finish the characters

- Glue the front and the roof together

But we will have to do this in our spare time as today was our last class! 

Day 9 - May 12th 2009

the cam & followers!

Class 1

 Today for our first class of the day, I worked on the mechanisms in the house. Alexa was sick, so I tried to do as much work as I could without touching the power tools. I attached the third wall of the house and put the axle holding the cams and followers through, I realized the cams were too pointy so I will resolve this issue this afternoon. Someone helped me out with cutting the intermediate part that will guide the followers as well as putting the holes through them. This was one of our last classes and I'm starting to get worried, I don't think our horizontal cam and follower will work, the cams are too steep, and it's too late to change them because they're glued in place and the axles already installed, on top of that: the windows might show too much of the interior of the house.

Class 2

This afternoon's class went great compared to this morning's. First, I sanded down the cams as much as I could, put the half-done followers in place then put the intermediate piece between the edge of the windows and the axle to guide the followers. I glued everything down and it seems to be working great when I spin the axle. I then made a crank and the cam and followers are working flawlessly! I haven't put the characters on because I want to paint them first, and all that's left to do is the horizontal cam and follower as well as the door. 

Emily

Day 8 - May 8th 2009

alexa making our cams

Class 1

Today was a great day for our dreamhouse! It started off this morning with Alexa making our cam, followers, and axles and Emily finishing cutting out the sides of our house. We decided we were just going to use regular cams rather than the "snail drop cams" that we had originally planned as they seem more complicated and we are running short on time.

Of course, yesterday's incident repeated itself when the drill-press broke yet again when Alexa was drilling holes for the axle in the sides of our house. Luckily, they were much smaller so they were easy to repair.

Class 2

In our afternoon tech class, we also asked if we could use a bigger drill-bit so our miniscule circular windows won't be so small, but then something amazing happened. We realized we could cut out square windows using the jigsaw, so Alexa cut out the door and the window, while Emily glued some walls together. Everything started to look amazing, and Alexa and Emily started to put together the main parts of the house, putting the axle with the cams through the two walls that hold it. Today was definitely a good day for construction and we look forward to finishing soon!

Emily & Alexa

Day 7 - May 7th 2009

Today Alexa fixed the roof! The class started off on a very good note. We glue-gunned the four pieces of the roof together and our "dreamhouse" finally started looking decent. Of course, nothing can go perfectly, Emily went to put the holes for the axle in the two sides of the house and the drill press fell apart, leaving huge holes in both of the sides.  It seems like our "dreamhouse" is turning into a nightmare, especially when we saw the size of the largest drill-bit, which is going to be making the holes for the windows. The windows will be very tiny compared to our house, but we're planning on decorating the façade so it should look okay.  Emily had to re-measure and began to re-cut the sides of the house.  Hopefully next class we will be able to catch up on lost time, since we have two periods to work tomorrow. 

Day 6 - April 29th 2009

Today we worked extremely hard and diligently on what we thought was a lot of work. As much as we would love to say we got a lot of building done, after a few mistakes we feel we could have done more. Emily measured the roof and Alexa proceeded to cut out the shapes. Emily made the outlines of the characters as well as the front door, everything was going smoothly until we realized the following that we had not included in our sketches:

§  Problem: We needed another piece of wood to hold the followers in place so they wouldn't fall off the track of the cam. 

   Solution: We have cut out two pieces of wood (35 x 10) that will be glued in place between the axle and the character on the end of the follower to hold it in place. 

§   Problem: We realized it is almost impossible to cut squares (which we need for the windows and the doors) in the middle of a piece of wood. 

   Solution: We will use the drill press to put the largest size hole possible in three locations to use as make-shift circular windows, and we shouldn't have a problem cutting out the door as we can start the hole from the bottom of the wood rather than the middle.

§   Problem:  We didn't write the correct measurements for the width of the two rectangular pieces for the roof, so we are missing about 5 cm in total on the top of the roof.

    Solution: We have yet to solve this issue yet, but Alexa plans on re-cutting two new 19.5 x 35 cm slabs of wood for the roof.

Today we also used almost every power tool in the tech lab! So we definitely learnt a lot about cutting straight lines, and measuring twice and cutting once.

Emily & Alexa

Day 5 - April 24th 2009

Today we were hoping to do more than last time, and we feel very accomplished! Not only did we cut out everything we had hoped to, we also have the splinters to prove it. Because the pieces of our house were too big for any of the electric saws, unfortunately we had to do everything by hand. As hard as it was, we did learn a lot. Such as, clamps don't work as well as people for holding wood down while you're trying to saw it. 

We cut out the four sides of our house out and we hope that next time we will be able to draw the roof lines and cut out all four pieces (two triangles and two rectangles). 

Emily & Alexa

Day 4 - April 16th 2009

our isometric drawing

our orthographic drawing

Today we handed in both of our technical drawings, and we began building. We pretty much spent our whole class measuring. We didn't encounter any problems besides the fact that we found it nearly impossible to draw a straight line. We tried to focus on the main pieces of the house, yet we couldn't even seem to finish those.

Hopefully next time we will be able to catch up on lost time!

Alexa & Emily

Day 3 - April 6th 2009

Today we handed in our conceptual sketch, we also started drawing our technical drawings by hand. Alexa is drawing the orthographic layout and Emily is drawing the isometric drawing. We realized as we were trying to configure the layout of the machines that the crank was positioned way to high. We had originally planned gears between the crank and the axle to initialize the rotations, but we decided that it would be much easier to just attach the crank directly to the axle and cut out a whole step in between. For homework, Alexa will finish her drawing, and Emily will finish hers as well. 

While doing some reaseach and the technical drawings, we figured out the perfect way to make the characters come all the way into sight through the windows then drop completely out of the picture was to use a "snail drop" cam. (http://www.technologystudent.com/cams/snail1.htm)

Day 2 - March 31st 2009

our conceptual sketch

Today we had to hand in our project proposal and our five sketches. Here is the proposal we submitted for our dreamhouse idea:

§ § What do you want to make? What theme do you want to go with?

We want to make a miniature playhouse that has moving people and features; the theme will be dream house.

§ § What will the inputs be?

The input will be a crank that causes the characters to move.

§ What will the outputs be?

The outputs will be a girl and a puppy in respective windows moving up and down as well as an opening and closing front door.

§ Who will do what in your group?

We will divide the tasks equally, but Emily will mostly work on the structure of the house and the incorporation of the machines, and Alexa will work on the installation of the machines such as the connecting rod and crank and gears.

Today, we also worked on our conceptual sketch. Because our brainstorming for the dreamhouse idea was so detailed, we didn't have to change much for the sketch. Unlike our original idea, we've decided to change the layout of the house. Rather than having two windows on the upper floor, and a door surrounded by another two windows, we will have two windows on the upper floor and a single window next to the door. We decided that this way it would be easier to put together.

Day 1

Today we learnt about the project we would be working on over the next few weeks, we saw what we had to incorporate such as one input and three outputs. We also saw a few examples of toys which gave us a few ideas (http://automata.co.uk/). We brainstormed a few ideas and we think we're leaning towards making a dreamhouse with moving characters. Our other options were a globe and a tree with moving countries and animals respectively! We thought the house would b the simplest and most creative choice. For homework we will finish the brainstorming sketches.

Emily & Alexa