Project Lakeview
What is Project Lakeview?
Project Lakeview was our ongoing assignment for the semester. Throughout our physics class we learned about concepts and tools that would assist us in our construction of the wave machine. The information below will summarize the process and project that was made in the class.
The Beginnings
Our first step in construction was our first wave machine. In groups, we were each assigned a part of the machine. One person was in charge of making the frame for the machine another was in charge of making the drive and a third was in charge of the strings and the blocks. For my group, I was in charge of the drive which involved taking an 18 inch by 18-inch panel of wood and cutting a circle with a 16 inch diameter in it. I (along with the other people in charge of making the drive) used the C.N.C machine which could be programmed to cut a circle in the direct center of the panel. Learning to use the C.N.C machine was one of the first major tools I had used before. In previous grades, I had never used tools like that before. It was a major step in the project overall of becoming familiar with the tools
The C.N.C machine the tool I needed to use for my first wave machine
The Middle
Our second step was brainstorming our own idea for the machine and then constructing somewhat of a rough draft of the machine. One person in my group was set on an idea and we had agreed to construct what he envisioned. In my new group, we had changed roles and I wanted to make the frame. In this new group we constructed our wave machine so that it hung vertically. We interlinked the blocks together to give it somewhat of a disk looking wave. This was our key difference in our machine and something we were excited to see once it had been completed. It was interesting to make a machine without any previous reference. Our last machine we were essentially copying a frame our instructor had already made. For the second machine, it was up to us to construct our own original one. While we all had our own assignments and roles in our group I felt our group did well at helping one another regardless if it was our role or not. I felt it was a major key in working efficiently and as a group. When it came time to mount our project we were one of the few groups to do it so aligning it perfectly and drilling was a little difficult but of course working together as a group we were able to get it mounted. In the end, we felt it came out pretty well but we had many ideas for how we could improve for our final project. Of course we had known we would be making a final draft so when we completed our first draft we had a rigorous critique session from our classmates as well as ourselves and took the time to find key parts in our machine that we wanted to fix for our final draft. Once we had decided on our changes we began construction.
Our first draft mounted to the wall
The Finale
For our final project we took critique from multiple people as well as ourselves and wanted to make a final version with a smaller margin of error than before. Using nicer material we carefully cut our pieces out and assembled them. This time I was also in charge of the frame and took a different approach when making my crossbeams. In my previous draft the crossbeams were added onto an already existing panel of wood with a circle cut out. In this draft we instead cut four circle quadrants out so that our crossbeams were already apart of our panel. This allowed for a stronger support for our drive and overall smoother wave. Another change we made was the blocks that redirected the eye hooks. In our previous draft we had four large blocks that we attached eye hooks to so we could redirect them downwards to the wave blocks. When making our final draft we felt those large blocks distracted from the movement by blocking the view of the gear and also seemed unnecessary. We decided to cut out 12 individual blocks that were much smaller than the four larger blocks. We felt this made for a more streamlined and less cluttered look. We also used a faster motor so our wave could spin faster. One thing that was missing completely from our final draft that was in our previous draft was the additional cantilevers which we attached with string. We felt our right triangle and support beam cantilevers had given us such a strong support we wouldn't need the additional cantilever. Overall making the final draft was great to make improvements we wanted to beforehand and working with the group made our project finish efficiently and on time
Our final draft mounted to the wall
Conclusion
Working on this project was very interesting for me personally because in previous years at High Tech I had never done woodworking like this. The last time we did woodworking of any kind was in middle school. Even then we just made frames and boxes, nothing as complex and intricate as our wave machine. Given the lack of experience jumping into this semester working with tools at first felt a little overwhelming and difficult as my schoolwork hadn't been physical wood projects since middle school. Another new thing I had was working in a group to make a physical object. The last time I had done that was in 10th grade physics when we constructed rockets and electronic board games. Essentially this class on top of learning more tools was a different kind of class I had never had before and had elements that I haven't had in a class in years.
Gallery
Our instructors first wave machine
Bottom view of our first draft