wildcard week

#WaterJet #EDM at CBA shop

In wildcard week, I try to use fancier machines to produce some metal parts to improve my final project. First, I need a heavy enough metal platform to mount my modularized robotic arm for the final project. Second, the robotic arm requires stronger gears. In my previous test, the 3D-printed gears wear out too fast; also, the precision is not ideal. Hence, I asked David for help. Thanks to him, I got EDM-cut gears.

WaterJet

I design platform to mount my final project. I design it as a multi purpose platform with holes.

I put a MIT logo to test the precision of water jet. In the path visualization, It seems to work.

During the cutting, it is necessary to check whether the waste parts fall. Jennifer mentioned that if these waste materials are stuck, the waterjet nozzle might collide the part, causing serious issues.

The visualization of the issue.

Thanks to Jennifer; I got the piece I need.

EDM

I need much better gears for my final project; therefore, I asked David for helps.

This is the original gear I used; it wears out so fast because the material is not stong and the stepper motors is hot when runing; it could melt the PLA gear.

My plan is to cut a long gear and slice it into thinner gears.

Thanks to David's helps to make it a reality.

During the process, we encounter some issues. The first one is the water issue. I got to refill it.

Then, it stopped because it detected that the wire contacted the matel, which wasn't supposed to happen.

We found that the piece in the center of the gear fallen and stuck.

The condition is as the image below showing; which is similar to waterjet, the waste sometimes causes problem.

We used a megnet to remove the piece.

The process succeeded after clearing the fault. Then, how to slice it???

David came up with a fantastic idea, and he suggested I could use super glue to solve almost any problem.

It did work!! I got what I need.

Dec 07 2022