Projects

P2: Build a sturdy wooden chair #

Build a chair out of wood. If you prefer, you can use a different material or build a different piece of furniture that holds up a person’s weight.

You will be given: #

  • 1 square of plywood, 15.5 inches on a side
  • 2 2x4’s, each 8 feet long
  • 1 1x4, 8 feet long

You can use any other wood you can find or buy, but don’t go buy a bunch of fancy wood. The idea here is not to make an heirloom, but to make a structurally sound chair with basic materials.

A few guidelines to help your learning:

  • If you feel compelled to stain or paint your chair, please wait until after the due date and don’t do it in Nolop. (You should probably do it outside, but it’s probably too cold for that, which is why I’m trying to convince you not to do it.)
  • Think about the loads that your chair will experience when you lean back in it or tip in any direction. Try to reinforce the legs and back so that they won’t break.
  • Glue joint strength is proportional to surface area.
  • In general, fasteners shouldn’t take load directly– they should hold load-bearing parts in place.
  • If you feel the need to cut a 2x4 the long way, just use a 2x2 instead. We have a pile of those.
  • We also have a pile of 2x6’s that are fair game.

P2 due dates #

P2 learning goals: Tuesday, February 3, 11:59 PM on Canvas.

P2 due: Tuesday, February 10, at the start of class.

P2 learning results: Tuesday, February 10, 11:59 PM on Canvas.

P1: Build a mechanical car launcher #

Design, prototype, and refine a mechanism that can reliably hold and release a toy car with enough force to launch a toy car through a hoop.

The goal here is threefold:

  1. design a means to control a large force from a rubber band with a small force from your finger
  2. validate your design with mathematical estimates
  3. practice building a smooth mechanism

You will be given: #

  • 1 ball bearing, 8 mm OD, 3 mm ID, 4 mm width, part number 693ZZ
  • 1 piece of steel rod, 3 mm in diameter
  • A pile of rubber bands, size 64
  • 1 toy car for propulsion

You will need to obtain: #

  • Probably some cardboard for prototyping
  • Probably some plywood from the Nolop store for laser cutting

Deliverables #

For the second class, you should bring three things:

  1. A design for your car launcher in the form of a detailed drawing or CAD model
  2. Some mathematical calculations that suggest that your car launcher will propel the car to the right height
  3. Some kind of physical validation that suggests you are on the right track, like a prototype or test mechanism

For the final due date, bring your car launcher to class, and we’ll test them out. There will be cheers and groans.

By midnight on the due date, submit some documentation: a screenshot of CAD model or a picture of your drawings, a PDF of your calculations, and a picture of what you built. If you are proud of what you built, make sure that the picture makes it look good.

P1 due dates #

P1 design, calculations, some design validation: Tuesday, January 20, in class.

P1 project due: Tuesday, January 27, at the start of class.

P1 documentation: Tuesday, January 27, 11:59 PM on Canvas.