🏗️ WEEK 11: MACHINE WEEK

Group mechanical design, automation, and collaborative engineering.

Ouija Board Gantry Project

This week was a collaborative group assignment focused on designing and building an automated X-Y gantry system. Due to illness (COVID), I contributed remotely to the gantry design team, focusing on hardware sourcing, mechanical components, and print-in-place pulley bracket design. Despite limited capacity, I was able to participate in the redesign of critical components and learned significantly from the project.

Documentation & Media

Hardware sourcing, mechanical design, and pulley bracket development

Scavenged AIO X-Y gantry setup from Stata docks, possibly from a server setup or robot. Unfortunately did not work with our dimensions and required drivers that we could not identify.

Redesigned print-in-place pulley bracket for the gantry system.

3D Design Files

Print-in-place pulley bracket STL with 3D visualization

printinplacebracket.stl

Print-in-place pulley bracket redesign for the X-Y gantry system. This component allows for smooth motion without additional assembly or fasteners.

⬇ Download STL File

Remote Contribution & Team Collaboration

I tested positive for COVID this week and was generally very sick (spoke to Gert about remote participation). Despite the limitation, I was able to contribute to the gantry design team by:

Sourcing potential AIO X-Y gantry hardware from lab resources
Collaborating on print-in-place pulley bracket redesign
Learning from team members about gantry dynamics and motion control
Planning for future projects (potential automatic chessboard build)

I was very impressed with the final product and grateful for my teammates' flexibility during my illness. This experience reinforced the value of collaborative engineering and remote participation capabilities.

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