Engineering Projects/Rube Goldberg/Howard Community College/Fall2011/550 FKJ

Problem Statement

Is it possible to make a Rube Goldburg machine out of printer and scanner parts?

Team Members

These are the team members of FKJ

Summary+Story

Summary and story: During the past 4 weeks, our group went through disassembling a laser printer and figuring out how a simple Rube Goldberg machine can be created. Many designs and drawings were created by the different team members and in the end all were put together and a final design was created in our notebooks. Although a physical model was not created, the members learned many things about how the different parts of a printer work to really make this extremely sophisticated machine to work (which is what rube Goldberg is all about). Parts that were found and that can be potentially used are the several gears of different sizes, the roller bars, the fans and the laser. From the beginning, all of the team members agreed that the project should be physically attached to a wooden platform which is aligned vertically. Then some kind of ball would be the center of attention, as it would roll down and trigger all the machines assembled on the platform. For instance, the ball would roll over a switch to trigger the fan which would in return blow a sail boat. It’s like the domino affect however with parts of a printer. The details of what materials would be used for each part were also decided. For instance, the base of the sail boat would be made out of light material such as foam since the fan that was used was not powerful enough to blow relatively heavier material. Secondly, it was decided that the ball would roll on cylindrical tubes. And finally, the water tub that would float the boat would be made out of fiber glass. Finally, an arduino may be used to not only power the fan but also to control it. This conclusion was discovered after the fan was attached a power source which in turn showed that it was not using the maximum power output. An arduino may be used to fix that.

Poster

The gears that were assembled on the wooden platform.

The roller bars that were found (may be extremely useful for rube goldberg)

Material List

DC fan
Arduino
Gears (different sizes)
Fiber glass
Roller bars
String
Cylindrical tubes
Mini ball(s)
Switches
Wires
Some kind of platform to place your project on
Display screen
Other parts of a laser printer that fit into the project

Decision List

JaeHaynes originally took home a laser jet printer to dissessemble. K.Saunders brought in a large piece of furniture board. We decided to focus more on the gears and get a machine started from there. We decided to visually create a layout of our project before assembly

Software List

During the construction of our Rube Goldberg machine, we decided to work visually and not use any form of computer software.

Time

Along with the four weeks of student in-class work, we estimate it will take at most 2 weeks to complete and an additional week in order to test and modify. We estimate 2 weeks because in the week we spent brainstorming and constructing it, we completed about a third of the model. With an additional two weeks, the other 5 or 6 parts could be completed and put together. The last weeek would be dedicated to testing and modifying the model so that it runs effectivly every time.

Tutorials

The next team can easily replicate what has already been done by viewing the pictures of the model that we have posted. Here are some rube goldberg machines found on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RouXygRcRC4

Repeatability

This project is very repeatable. The parts we have assembled will continue to perform their fuctions; operating correctly every time. The large piece of wood donated by K.saunders may be dismantled and used by another group.

Next Steps

Assemble the rest of the parts completing the creation of our Rube Goldberg machine.