4/19-4/26

For the last two weeks, I've been helping suspension by machining parts for them and welding up parts for both suspension and braking. I have also been ordering the last few parts that we need for the bogie design. Today we will be putting the bogies together and seeing how they fit onto the rails.

4/5-4/12

This week was spent machining down flats on all of the shafts of the steering arms. This was completed in order for all the set screws that connect to the swing arms and pulleys to the shaft to have a flat surface to connect to.

3/15-3/22

This week was spent finishing up the main bogie structure by welding everything together, and powder coating it. Spacers were 3D printed for the upper steering arms, and the shafts for the gearbox were lathed down. All the parts except for the stepper motor coupler have been made and final assembly just needs to take done. Overall, we are making good progress for our part of the project to complete in order for the sub-teams to be able to start integrating soon.

3/8-3/15

This last week a lot of progress was made. It was possible to weld up most of the bogies, and machine out most of the parts. We are waiting on the gears and pulleys which have been ordered and should be arriving this weekend. Once they arrive, we will be able to lathe down the gear shafts, and press-fit the gears and pulleys onto them. Once this is complete the last task is to verify the design and start integrating other parts of the design.

3/1-3/8

This week was spent machining out housings for bearings as well as beginning to weld up the main structure. It has been quite a busy process consuming a lot of time. Overall, the progress is slow but steady. I will continue to work towards the goal of finishing by May.

2/22-3/1

This week was spent working on the first presentation for the Spring semester, and finishing up machining the gearbox housings that are in figure 1. Overall, good progress is being made. The bearing housings are going to be machined out this weekend, and then welding can begin.

2/14-2/21

During this week more parts are being machined, but we have yet to start welding anything together yet. We want to have all the part machined in order to tack weld everything together at once and make sure we aren't running into any tolerance issues. We still need to order the gears for the steering and all of the fasteners, but other than that we have everything we need. Overall, we are making good progress, and we just need to keep working on everything to make sure that we finish by May. I am worried about other team however, It doesn't seem like any of the sub-teams have started manufacturing their parts and it is getting late into the game.

Winter Break - 2/8

During winter break purchasing of materials and fabrication of parts began. All sheet metal parts were cut out on a water jet and were sandblasted in order to remove any rust on them, figure 1.

figure 1. Waterjet cut parts The housing for the gears for steering were machined out using a CNC mill, figure 2.

Figure 2. Gearbox housing All of the rod ends for that wheels are attached to were also machined on the manual mill, figure 3.

Fugre 3. Rod ends for wheels