Ideation

In class today I designed the first cart that I am going to make. The body is going to be made of coreflute, so it will be very thin and light. The motor is going to be placed under the body to make it more aerodynamic. The batteries will be placed near the back of the car to keep the weight centralised slightly in front of the back wheels. A scale drawing of the design can be seen below.

I am thinking about making a later design for my cart using ProDesktop, because then I can get the measurements more exact and the materials will be lighter. I would be able to extrude two holes through the body for the metal pole that the wheels are on, and this would be perfectly straight. I am not sure of what design I would use for this yet, or if I will even have time, but I would like to be able to at least try it.

Theory Lessons - Things to keep in mind

Design tips:
-Lubricant on copper wire at the front and back of the cart, as well as on the metal that the wheels are attached to.
-Weight centralised just in front of the wheels
-Piece of plastic in front to divert the air more smoothly, making the cart more aerodynamic
-Make the cart as light as possible, but not so light that it would flip.
-Thinner body of cart is faster -By changing the positions of the large and small cogs, the cart can either have fast acceleration with a slower top speed or slow acceleration with a very fast top speed.
-Taking the outer layer as well as the silver piece of the wheel helps.
-Higher quality batteries can help slightly

Torch Completion

I have just finished making my torch and am quite pleased with how it turned out. I brought a laptop home tonight and was fiddling with the program, changing little things in the design until I was satisfied. I made each part of the torch several times, each with a small detail changed in it until I decided on the one that I liked the best. For instance, in the barrel of the torch, I made it with the helixes both extruded subtracting material and adding material, and also played with the diameter of each helix. I did similar things with the other parts, but in the end decided to keep them fairly simple because the barrel was already rather complex. With the top cap, I changed it slightly from my original design, adding a small lip at the top to form a small amount of protection around the glass that would cover the reflector.

I am going to try to take home a laptop again on Thursday or over the weekend so that I can make any final adjustments to my design, make the engineering drawing and print out all of the components. I am also planning on beginning work on the written component tomorrow. I have planned out in my head what I want to include in all the different aspects of it, so hopefully it won't take too long.

Also, I am very excited for our next unit of work! I have been looking forward to it ever since it was first mentioned. I have a very competitive nature, and due to this I will probably put a lot more effort into the task than is necessary, but will certainly have a lot of fun while doing it. I am aiming to be able to beat Mr Ward's time, even though I know it is fairly unlikely.

Torch Design Decision

I have settled on a design for my torch. It will be a generic torch shape with spirals around the barrel of it. I am not sure if it will be possible to have multiple spirals crossing over each other yet, so I will try it and if it doesn't work I'll just have one. I haven't done a spiral before, but I found an exercise in the textbook, using the sweep tool, that is fairly similar to what I want to do, so I can modify it to fit my needs. The spirals, while adding interest to the barrel of the torch, will also provide a more rough surface, thus causing more friction between a hand and the barrel. This will make it easier to hold on to than a smooth surface, making it more effective for protection.

The end cap is square, with straight, relatively sharp edges. During a potential attack, these could be used for self defense, while not putting the user at risk. The top cap and reflector are similar in design to other torches.

A scale drawing of my design can be seen below:

Ideation

I began properly ideating today and I now have three main ideas. The first is to make the torch in the shape of a gun. The batteries would be situated in the handle, and the switch to turn it off and on could be the trigger. This would mean that the torch could be quite small, but still detailed to fit in with the design brief. It could also be good for deterring potential criminals as it would look threatening even though it is harmless.

My other two ideas are both modelled off items in shows/movies that I like. They are a sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who, or a wand from Harry Potter. Both of these series' have large fanbases, and the items would therefore attract a large audience. I am leaning more towards these two ideas than my first one as I think they would be more interesting to make and also fit better with the conventional torch shape. Images of both the items can be seen below.



At the moment, I cannot decide which I prefer between my second two ideas. I am interested in doing the wand because I have been wanting to learn how to do a spiral/spring for a while, and I could include it in the embellishments of the design if I chose to do this. On the other hand, the sonic screwdriver is a better shape to fit all of the pieces of a torch. As it is slightly wider, it would be better for accommodating the batteries, reflector etc. I am going to continue looking for more ideas in the lesson tomorrow to see if I can think of anything better, or improve on the ideas I already have if I can't think of anything.

In today's lesson I completed the pen assembly, meaning that I have completed all of the exercises that need completing, so I can now focus on ideation for my torch. I do not have many ideas yet, but in the next lesson I am going to look up different images to try to decide on what I would like to do.

ProDesktop Progress

Since my last post I have made a lot of progress on ProDesktop. I have completed most of the tasks required for the assessment. These are both toy blocks, calculator, clock face, cart wheel, phone, energy drink bottle and aluminium motor cycle wheel. I found the aluminium motor cycle wheel to be the most challenging as it did not give much explanation on how to create it. It also involved using most of the tools that we had used so far, and adding on the mirror tool. While it wasn't exactly difficult to make, I found it hard to make the shapes similar to the ones in the design. Even so, I am pleased with the end result of it.

I have had an issue with the file for my phone. Last lesson, just after I had completed it, the program crashed and damaged the file so it won't open. Mr Ward has said that I don't have to redo it, but I am still slightly annoyed because it had taken a few lessons and I was really proud of how it had turned out. I had put in a lot of detail into the design. For instance, where there were extrusions subtracting material below the workplane, instead of just leaving it as a hole, I had either rounded or chamfered the edges depending on what was on the phone to make it as accurate as possible. I had also done all of the measurements very exactly to make it as well as I could. I was planning on adding the text on the back and attempting to create the Apple logo as well, but the program crashed before I could do this.

I am fairly close to beginning work on my torch now. I just need to complete the pen and then I can do the torch. I am planning on making the torch as well as possible, and incorporating as many different skills as I can in order to make up for not handing in the phone. I haven't really thought of many ideas yet, but there is one that I wouldn't mind trying. I am going to look up how to make a spring, but rather than putting it inside the torch (because in springs in actual torches, the coils slowly become smaller as you move closer to the top, and I think it would be difficult to make it realistic) I want to have the spring design extruded slightly around the surface of the handle of the torch. This could serve to improve aesthetics, and also provide extra grip around the handle for ease of use. I am excited to start work on my torch, and will hopefully begin properly ideating soon.