Team Started from the Bottom has had our ups and downs this week.

With all of our materials ordered (or so we thought), we began the process of building our final prototype. Our plan was to laser cut all of our wooden pieces, complete with notches to hold everything together more securely. However, after trying to test-cut half-inch thick plywood in both laser cutters, we discovered that it could not be done. Having made all of our construction plans under the assumption that the wood could be laser-cut, we made the decision to laser cut the wood as far as it would go (halfway through), and sanded them down to the desired depth. At the beginning of the week we also refined some of the Solid Works models for our parts that needed to be machined, plasma cut our aluminum sheet, and cut down some of our metal pieces (including a pair of crutches!).

On Wednesday afternoon we took a break by going to the Astros game. I can safely say that it was the highest up I had ever sat at a baseball game. I like baseball, but I will admit that it was a particularly boring game (although I didn’t fall asleep like some people), with the Astros only scoring one run. Most of the interns spent about half the game eating and half of the game discussing the roof trusses, with very little time spent watching the game. It was a fun break and a cool opportunity to teach the international students about American culture.

After successfully beginning to construct the seat and sewing the cushion, today we hit another road block. We were informed that one of our gears that we spent a few hours the week before finding on the internet was not going to arrive on time. Already concerned that we would not finish our project or that it would not work, this came as a bit of a shock to our team. At this point we were left with two options: to mill our own gears, which may or may not be successful, or to buy new gears. After some stress-filled frantic research, we decided that the best option was to buy gears that do not exactly have the specs we want but will hopefully prove that our design can indeed function. This unfortunately necessitates redoing the dimensions for several of our machined parts, but we are lucky that we had not already made some of the parts to fit the old gears.

I have mixed feelings entering the end of this week. I’m both stressed and excited about our project. While I am still worried that we will not finish or that it will not work, I am hopeful that it will be a success, and excited to see the impact that the device could have. A lot can happen in a few days, and I’m hoping that holds true for us as we enter our last week as SEED interns.