I design, CAD, prototype, and test hardware. Projects below, resume to the right.
After robotics season ended during the spring of my senior year, I made two goals for myself for the remaining two months of school. One, keep upgrading the 3D Printers to the point that they can be learned and used easily. Two, complete my shopping cart gokart that I started building about a year ago as my engineering academy final project and drive it in the senior parade. Now that the year has came to a close, I can happily say that I have accomplished both goals.
All three Ender 3 V2s are now upgraded to CR-Touch Probes (auto bed leveling probes that allow easier leveling and z-axis adjustment during the first few layers). These three printers have also been flashed with new firmware that allows easy access to the auto bed leveling features. The beds on the printers have also been upgraded to glass and the bed springs have been upgraded to stronger springs to ensure that a bed level will hold for longer before a re-level is needed. I am also currently maintaining a published google doc with simple instructions and videos on how to 3D print that is linked via QR code on each 3D Printer. After a whole school year working on the Coffman printers, I can confidently say that I have shared my 3D printing knowledge with others and have performed improvements and upgrades on the printers that will put future students on the right track to successful prints. The screen-capped image on the left is captured from an instructional video I produced that describes the entire process of starting a print on one of the Coffman printers.
After initially constructing the axles and frame the spring of my junior year (with some welding help from my engineering teacher), my go-kart lay dormant in my garage for much of the following summer and fall. I knew that there was still a decent amount of work to be done, however, I was too busy with other life events to put in the time necessary. After my senior year AP tests finished, I dived back into go-kart fabrication with a new vigor. Two weeks out from the senior parade, I solved the motor problem that had been plaguing me via the addition of a centrifugal clutch on the output shaft. Next came brakes and steering. After several nights spent working in my garage way past midnight, I had thrown out the hydraulic brake that came with the axle kit (pictured below) and installed a much stronger manual brake instead. As the frame of the kart was just 1x1 tubing and a shopping cart, my brake mounts were custom-designed out of sheet metal and plasma cut at school. With just several days to go before the senior parade, I engineered a way for my steering wheel to freely "float" in the kart, not held in place by a steering column. Through this interesting idea, I was able to save the effort that would have gone into building g a steering column while still having an effective method of steering the kart. Many strategically applied zip ties and bungee cords later, the gokart was ready to test, just two days before the parade. Against my expectations, the gokart worked! After spending the weekend learning how to drive it, I took the gokart in our senior parade (a route over half a mile long) and it performed amazingly!