<div class="textcontainer"> <p class="margin"> </p> <h3>Week 3: Hand Tools and Fabrication</h3> <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./Drift.gif" width = 1100 alt=""> </div> <p class="caption"></p> <p class="margin"> </p> <h4>Background: The Greatest Automotive Company in History</h4> <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./356.jpeg" width = 400 alt=""> </div> <p class="caption">The original Porschd 356 Cabriolet, 1948.</p> <p class="margin"> </p> The first Porsche ever made, the 356, was built in a shed in Stuttgart Germany in 1948. The project was a pursuit of pasion, bootstrapped using basic tools and a leftover motor. The body was hammered completely by hand from polished aluminum and the frame was borrowed from a VW Beetle. Over the next half century, Porsche's minimalist approach to sportscar-making redefined the automotive landscape by wedding lightweight engineering with timeless body architecture. From humble beginnings, Porsche built the greatest sportscar company of all time. </p> This week, we were tasked with creating a sculpture using hand tools, small motors, and simple circuits. Sportscars are often refered to as "art on wheels," or "moving sculptures," and I thought our task this week was a perfect allegory of what Ferdinand Porsche achieved in 1948. If Ferdinand Porsche, who was not proficient in HTML and could not operate a laser printer, could build the greatest automotive company in history, imagine what I could do with access to modern technology and a multi-million dollar fabrication shop. With ardent determination and a healthy dose of elbow grease, I believed that I could achieve a similar level of greatness over the course of the week. </p> </p> <p class="margin"> </p> <h3>STEP 1</h3> First, I had to give myself a crash course in automotive engineering. Porsche is famous for its buttery smooth and satisfying manual gearboxes, and I thought this would be a great place to start. <p class="margin"> </p> <h5>Inspiration & Planning: Custom Gearbox</h5> <p class="margin"> </p> </p> <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./Sketch.jpeg" width = 600 alt=""> </div> <p class="caption">Basic sketch (all great companies start from a sloppy drawing)</p> Although 3D gearbox files are easy to find online, I wanted to learn how to do it from scratch. If I was going to run a multi-billion dollar automotive company, I couldn't skip any steps, so I spent ~3 hours on Youtube and Fusion learning how gearboxes work, what gear ratios are, and how to design gears that fit together. </p> <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./Custom Gears.png" width = 400 alt=""> </div> <p class="caption">Final Gear Design</p> I designed custom gears using Fusion's Spur Gear add-in. Luckily, I only needed two iterations before they fit. It did require lots of hand-drilling to fit the skateboard bearings, as my measurements were slightly off. <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./params.png" alt=""> </div> <p class="caption"></p> </p> <h3>STEP 2</h3> <h4>Circuitry & Motor</h4> <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./demo1.gif" width = 500 alt=""> </div> <p class="caption">Potentiometer trial with scrap motor.</p> While the hardware was being printed, I also needed to build a drivetrain for to power my gears. I planned to use a potentiometer to control power output and use an Arduino as the motherboard with an H-bridge between these and the motor. Much like Porsche's original special projects team, I used a scrap motor for my first design. I used the circuitry and code from the tutorial on the PS70 website. </p> Something I learned: by connecting red to black and black to red, you can reverse the direction. <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./demo2.gif" width = 500 alt=""> </div> <p class="caption">V2 Issues: wobbly motor gear, no independent circuitry.</p> I then hooked up the motor to my gearbox. This test was successful, and it felt good to basque in the fruits of my labor. Nevertheless, it was not without faults, so I kept troubleshooting until the gearbox ran smoothly, adjusting the spacing, base, bearings, motor speed, and drive gear. <p class="margin"> </p> <div class="flexrow"> <img src="./demo3.gif" width = 600 alt=""> </div> <p class="caption">V3: Final Gearbox, 1:64 gear ratio.</p> My flawless execution of the gearbox might project the illusion that this project was easy. This could not be futher from the truth. I spent hours in the lab just trying to make things fit together and rebuilding my housing, circuit, etc. In all seriousness, I wasn't sure if this was too ambitious, and spent so much time drilling and redrilling holes in the gears and the frame after getting my measurements wrong constantly. <p class="margin"> </p> Nevertheless, I persisted, and spent the little time remaining designing a body to house the drivetrain. Taking inspiration from legendary designers Gordon Murray, Porsche, and Joanna Cole, I modeled a body to capture the essence of timeless design. After several iterations, my functional concept was complete. <p class="margin"> </p> <h5>Click play to see how close I came to fulfiling Porsche's original vision!</h5> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>Video Example</title> </head> <body> <video width="640" height="360" controls> <source src="Innovation.mov" type="video/mp4"> Your browser does not support the video tag. </video> </body> </html> </body> </html> </body> </html> </div>