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