Engineering Projects/StrandBeest/Howard Community College/spring2012/p2550YFC

Problem Statement

Assemble working StrandBeest and achieve power.

Team Members

9484syoon

Brianwcallaghan

m'kay m'kay

Summary

The three of us worked on this project during the previous 4 weeks as well. Parts were cut and a design was agreed upon. Still remaining is to settle on a working crank shaft and power the movement with wind or some other means of power.

Poster

Beestterm2

Story

We began with confidence. Three of us from the previous 4 weeks stayed on the project, so we were all familiar with where we stood. The parts were cut and the overall design was done. In the first 4 weeks, one of us got the numbers right and helped the design and the other made CAD drawings and learned the CNC machine to cut the parts. This go round, without Matt, we split up the work as such. Brian was to build the legs and Soon and Filagot both were to work on the crank shaft.

The legs were built over the course of the next 2 weeks. 6 sets of 2. The crank shaft remained a problem. At this time, one member of the team became ill and missed 2 consecutive classes leading up to spring break. When he returned, no progress had been made.

This was the last week of the project, so the final result of the 2nd 4 weeks of StrandBeest resulted in the build of 6 leg sets. One team member, who built the legs did experiment with some crank ideas. Here is a video of the experiment which failed. Coat hanger is too flimsy for crank shaft. Last but not least the leg build member made a tutorial on how tho assemble the leg sets. You can find a link below on this page.

Decision List

Decisions were made early on about who would take what role in the process. However, after that communication was poor. As a result, decisions were made independently. Each call in the tutorial was made by Brian Callaghan.

Material List

1. Wooden parts cut on CNC machine
2. Crazy Glue
3. 2 inch cotter pins for backup
4. plactic grommets and pins
5. Drill
6. 1/8 inch drill bit

Software List

1. Picasa 3 was used to make the poster and edit the photos in the tutorial. Picasa 3 is a free photo editing software that is owned by Google.
2. AutoCAD was used only to open drawings of the parts for reference.

Time

44 hours

Tutorials

The following tutorial shows the step by step assembly of a pair of StrandBeest legs on a single frame that can demonstrate the movement. A later tutorial will show the assembly of these leg sets into a Beest.

Leg Assembly Tutorial

Next Steps

The crank shaft is the main obstacle. The rest of the body and legs will have to be built around it, so until we have a design, we are at an impasse. Circles may be the way to go.

• 
  Photo 1:One assembled leg linkage and the parts to the next one
• 
  Photo 2:Parts arranged as they will be assembled.
• 
  Photo 3: Grommet and pin to be glued in where connections including only 2 parts exist.
• 
  Photo 4:Longer pin for connections of more than 2 parts.
• 
  Photo 5:Grommet Connector
• 
  Photo 6:Putting a small amount of Crazy Glue in the grommet to hold the pin in place.
• 
  Photo 7:Pin that attaches through connector arm to grommet with crazy glue.
• 
  Photo 8:Two parts connected with grommet and pin.
• 
  Photo 9:2nd pin type through 2 parts.
• 
  Photo 10:3rd part added to pin.
• 
  Photo 11:Pin bent out to hold parts in place.
• 
  One side of finished product
• 
  Parts Diagram for Leg Assembly