Mouse Trap Car: Journal 16

Today was the Competition. Kevin and I went 148 feet that was the best that we have ever done. Everyone made a fuss because their grades sucked beacause our car went so far. Yeah.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 14

Today Kevin and I screwed the mouse trap into a set positionon our car. We then decided to test it out in the classroom. It really didn't work to well. I had wound the sting to close to the frame and it had been rubbing up against the yardsticks. Then I wrapped it around the axel more carefully and tried it out in the hall in went about 116 feet that was very cool. After we tweak the car and maximize the distance it will go about 150-175 feet. Below is a picture of Kevin with the car.
Yesterday in Advisement, Kevin and I put our car together once again. This time it has about minimal to zero wobble and with a slight push it just keeps on rolling.
Here is a picture of what we accomplished in advisement.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 13

Today we lathed out two new CDs to make the hole big enough for the bearings. Kevin and I decided not to mill out the new CDs because when we did mill them out the structural capabilty of each was greatly reduced. We hope that will prove to be a very wise move.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 12

Today we had our car fully assembled. Then we decided to test it. BAD IDEA. We rolled our car. The moment was glorious and it didn't wobble. CRUNCH!!!. Some one had not been watching and had stepped on the front wheel of our car. The wheel was totaled but luckily our bearing was still intact. There was still hope. We were just going to be delayed a little.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 11

Yesterday I made another error with our car. I decided to epoxy a wooden block between the yardsticks to space them. Well when I arrived in the morning they were all screwed up. It was probably because I didn't put a clamp on it until the epoxy was almost dry. Haha, silly me. Well we used the band saw to cut it of and then glued a new piece in, this time using a clamp.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 10

It is all coming together. Today we began assembling our car in the realm of the physical. I also returned Craigs bearings to him because I got some from a copier my dad had. These new bearings are shoulder bearings. They are better than regular bearings because you can push them in all the way and they will be perfectly flush to your stock. Today I also messed up our yardsticks. I wrote the G&M code wrong so on each of our sticks we had to chop of one inch. Well now we are down to 35 inches.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 9

Today I was a servant. I helped another group. During class and after school I milled out Katy Baron and Krystal Didas' two records for their car. That took alot of time but it was worth it. The first time I cracked the record so I had to start over with a new one. Oh well.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 8

Yesterday after school I milled out the drive wheel, a record, for our car. That took a long time. Today Kevin milled out our CDs in the mill. They look pretty cool. Everything takes forever in the mill, because it takes so long to set up.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 7

Today during class I wrote the code for the awesome CD that Kevin designed in Inventor. That really didn't take to long. After that Kevin and I calculated how far our mouse trap car would go under power. We calculated a crazy distance of approximately 50 feet. We then decided to increase the length of our car to 3 feet long versus our original 1 foot long. That changed our distance to a crazy distance of 200 feet. We like them numbers.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 6

Well today Craig Counts brought in some bearings for Kevin and I to use on our wheels. They are a little bit "gummy" and don't move as freely as I had hoped. Kevin also helped finish the assembly file in Inventor. Our car looks flippin' sweet.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 5

Today Kevin and I both worked on designing our car in Autodesk Inventor. We are almost done so soon we can put it all into an assembly file.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 4

Today Kevin began designing our CD wheels on Autodesk Inventor. It looks really awesome. I also began designing the rest of our car in Inventor. In other words, I am doing the easy pieces while Kevin works on the hard piece.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 3

Today Kevin and I sketched some rough drawings of our design. It looks really good so far. We decided that kevin would get eyehooks for the 12 foot stop and I would get yard sticks and records.

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 2

Today we discussed our design and decided on our materials. We began to design it in inventor. We are going to use a coat hanger, rulers and CD's and balloons. Not for power though just.. well i'll tell you later

Mouse Trap Car: Journal 1

In POE Kevin Sawdey and I mainly discussed what we were going to do. We decided that we would try to use the lightest material we could find. We decided to involve a lever along side the mouse trap to increase the power. We are also going to mill out CD's for the wheels.