What a wild last week for team Started from the Bottom.
At the beginning of this week, we scurried to finish our final (or so we thought) prototype. We still had a few parts that Jeremy needed to mill and lathe, and we had not finished building the chair. We began rushing because of the time crunch (final presentations were in two days, after all) and this caused us to make careless mistakes. This meant that we had to build and take apart a few things several times, and in hindsight we should have done more planning and less doing.
By Wednesday morning, the day of presentations, we (sort of) finished our final prototype.
Our 1st final prototype.
Me strapped into our “final” prototype. I wasn’t leaning back on the seat because if I had, I would have fallen onto the floor.
Me “using” the attached sliding board on our device.
The chair held my weight and the sliding board pulled out, but (as you can see in the second picture) the seat back could not bear my weight at all. I don’t think the screw mechanism worked at this point, but we needed to have something complete to show in the presentations. Right before the presentations, Bruno actually got the screw mechanism working. I sat on the device and it immediately dropped me, because the screw popped out of the back bearing. I spilled my yogurt from lunch all over myself 10 minutes before our presentation, because of course.
Our final presentation went fairly well, considering that we practiced it only two times, and not once with the changes we made during lunch. It was really cool to see the progress that the other teams had made and the successes of their devices. As a group, we have accomplished a lot this summer.
Group photo of all the SEED interns and instructors after our final presentations.
After the final presentation, we again scurried to fix our prototype and get it to work. Bruno got the device working with about 30 minutes left in the day and with the broken connection fixed. I sat on it, and he could use the hand crank to lift me up. When we showed Dr. Hunter and Dr. Wettergreen, we noticed that the screw seemed to be buckling a little bit, and the P-bracket (that attaches the screw to the crossbar of the scissor lift) was hot. This is a bad sign, since it means there is friction where there should not be. Then, Dr. Wettergreen decided that he wanted to try it out. When I sat on it, I felt like it could barely hold my weight, so I knew things were going to go downhill when a grown man sat on it. Sure enough, when Dr. Wettergreen sat down, the screw buckled, dropping Dr. Wettergreen (he was fine).
Therefore, on Thursday morning, we decided that we would reattach the hydraulic pump that the “Pit Posse” scissor lift had come with in order to see if our chair at least serves its intended purpose. After installing the pump, we had a successful prototype!
Link to a video of us using it: IMG_2536-18b0ggu
While the design that we intended to build never really worked, this summer was extremely productive, both in terms of our project and in terms of personal development. Ultimately, we have a working prototype! It has many flaws, but it successfully proves a concept that could be re-imagined and rebuilt in the future to create a successful vertical wheelchair transfer device. I really hope that this project becomes a more usable reality in the future, because we heard from the client the impact that this device would make, and I even know personally people who would benefit from a cheap, portable lift device like the one we built. In addition to the progress we made towards the wheelchair transfer project, I also gained many skills this summer. I learned Solid Works, how to use the laser cutter, and how to work better with people from different cultures. I also got my first experience working a 40-hour-a-week job, which helped me learn how to be more productive and focused when I have other full time jobs in the future. I’m going to miss my fellow interns, especially the international students that I may not be able to see again, and I’ll miss working in the OEDK full time with 24 hour access to a bunch of cool things like the 3D printers.
So here ends my last SEED blog post. I’m sad the program is over, but frankly I’m looking forward to waking up after 6:15 am for a few days, and not walking 15 minutes from West Lot to the OEDK and back in the 100 degree heat. I hope next year’s SEED interns have as great and as valuable of a summer as I did.